11 March 1966

11 March, is a very important date for Indonesia, because on this date forty years ago the late President Soekarno handed over power to Minister of the Army Leutnant General Soeharto.

According to the official version during the Soeharto era that ended on 20 May 1998, Soekarno hand over power by signing a letter dated 11 March 1966 prepared by Soeharto's staff, giving the following instructions  to Soeharto :

1)  To act for and on behalf of President Soekarno in taking whatever necessary to ensure the security, peace and stability of the government and the revolution, and to ensure the safety and authority of Soekarno and his doctrine;
2)  To Coordinate implementation of this instruction with the other Commanders in the Armed Forces;
3)  To report everything related to the above mentioned authorities and responsibilities;

From that day, the above mentioned power transition letter was popularly names as Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret a.k.a SUPER SEMAR.

Considering that according to the 1945 Constitution, such transition of power can only be conducted by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), in 1967, a plenary session of a Temporary MPR (MPRS) was held to appoint Soeharto as Acting President, and then Permanent President on 11 March 1968.
For details, please click here and here.

The very strange thing was that that the original letter has seemingly vanished into the thin air, especially after Soeharto and the three Army Brigadier Generals who brought the letter to Soekarno in Bogor Palace at that time i.e. Muhammad Yusuf, Amir Mahmud and Basoeki Rahmat have all passed away.

Nevertheless, for the sake of Indonesia's historical truthness I hope that there will be an open investigation on what really happened to the original letter.

Image :  Courtesy of Detik.