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Supersemar

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Supersemar

The Order of Eleventh March (Indonesian: Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret), commonly referred to by its syllabic abbreviation Supersemar, was a document signed by the Indonesian President Sukarno on 11 March 1966, giving army commander Lt. Gen. Suharto authority to take whatever measures he "deemed necessary" to restore order to the chaotic situation during the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The abbreviation "Supersemar" is also 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.

The Provisional People's Consultative Assembly in its 1966 General Session subsequently elevated the Supersemar into a semi-constitutional resolution irrevocable by Sukarno. This resolution explicitly stated that the Supersemar would cease to have legal power following "the formation of a People's Consultative Assembly from a general election." Elections were held in 1971 and the members were sworn in on 28 October 1971.

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.[citation needed]

Over the next few months Suharto and the armed forces seized the initiative. The armed forces accused its long-standing rival, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), of being behind the "coup attempt" and an anti-Communist purge ensued.[citation needed]

During a cabinet meeting (which Suharto did not attend) on 11 March 1966, while student demonstrations protected by the army took place in Jakarta, troops without insignia surrounded the presidential palace where the meeting was being held. It later transpired that these were from Army special forces. Sukarno was advised to leave the meeting and did so, flying to the presidential palace in Bogor, 60 km south of Jakarta, by helicopter.[citation needed]

Later that afternoon three army generals, Maj. Gen. Basuki Rahmat, Minister for Veterans Affairs, Brig. Gen. M Jusuf, Minister for Basic Industry and Brig. Gen. Amir Machmud, Commander of the 5th Military Regional Command, visited Sukarno (who was accompanied by Deputy Prime Ministers Johannes Leimena, Chaerul Saleh and Subandrio) 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 during the political crisis in Indonesia in May 1998.

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