Supersemar

The Supersemar, the Indonesian abbreviation for Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret (Order of March the Eleventh) was a document signed by the Indonesian President Sukarno on 11 March 1966, giving the army commander Lt. Gen. Suharto authority to take whatever measures he "deemed necessary" to restore order to the chaotic situation during the Indonesian killings of 1965–66. The abbreviation "Supersemar" is a play on the name of Semar, the mystic and powerful figure who commonly appears in Javanese mythology including wayang puppet shows. The invocation of Semar was presumably intended to help draw on Javanese mythology to lend support to Suharto's legitimacy during the period of the transition of authority from Sukarno to Suharto.

In effect, the Supersemar came to be seen as the key instrument of the transfer of executive power from Sukarno to Suharto.

On 30 September 1965, a group calling itself the 30 September Movement killed six senior army generals, seized temporary control of parts of the center of Jakarta and issued a number of decrees over Republic of Indonesia Radio. Suharto and his allies defeated the movement and in the rather drawn-out process which extended out for six months or more, Sukarno's formal position as president of the nation was slowly but steadily ebbed away. The army accused its long-standing rival, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), of being behind the "coup attempt" and an anti-Communist purge ensued. Over the next few months Suharto and the army seized the initiative. During a cabinet meeting (which Suharto did not attend), troops without insignia surrounded the presidential palace where the meeting was being held. Sukarno was advised to leave the meeting and did so, flying to the presidential palace in Bogor, 60 km south of Jakarta, by helicopter. Later that afternoon three army generals, Maj. Gen. Basuki Rahmat, Minister for Veteran Affairs, Brig. Gen. M Jusuf, Minister for Basic Industry and Brig. Gen. Amirmachmud, Commander of the V/Jaya Jakarta Military Area Command, visited Sukarno and came away with the signed Supersemar which they then presented to Suharto. The next day Suharto used the powers thus conferred on him to ban the PKI, and on 18 March, fifteen Sukarno loyalist ministers were arrested. Suharto changed the composition of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) and a year later, in March 1967, the MPRS voted to strip Sukarno of his powers and appointed Suharto acting president. In 1968 the MPRS removed the word 'acting' and over two years after the events of September 1965 Suharto became the president of Indonesia. The process of transferring the presidency from Sukarno to Suharto had taken over two years. Suharto remained in power as president until he resigned in during the political crisis in Indonesia in May 1998.

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