Suharto Museum celebrates dictator's life, omitting dark chapters

Kemusuk, Indonesia

INDONESIA'S former dictator looms in bronze over the entrance to the small museum set amid the palm trees and emerald rice fields of central Java. Depicted in a military uniform and peaked officer's cap, he radiates calm authority over the village of his birth.

To many, the New Order government that Suharto led from 1967-1998 is a byword for corruption and repression on a grand scale, including a brutal campaign of anti-communist purges that historians describe as one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

As president, Suharto jailed and exiled his political enemies, and crippled democratic institutions. In 2004, the anti-graft organisation Transparency International described Suharto as the most corrupt leader on earth, claiming that he embezzled as much as US$35 billion while in power. But in a country where open discu…