Egypt, Indonesia, Military Regime

After 18 days of demonstrations that killed around 300 people, yesterday the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down from 30 years of authoritarian rule.

The interesting thing was that Mubarak hand over his power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which means that Egypt is now under military regime.

This remind me of the situation in Indonesia in 1966 when President Soekarno was forced to hand over power to the military which marked the beginning of 32 years of authoritarian rule.

It all began on the night of 30 September 1965 when 6 Army generals and 1 officer were brutally killed by a mysterious group of people.

The Army suspected that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was responsible for the killing, in their effort to take over power from President Soekarno.

On 11 March 1966, the Army lead by the late General Soeharto forced President Soekarno to hand over his power to them. In 1967, Soeharto was appointed as Acting President, and President in 1968..

Within two years after that, hundreds of thousands of people alleged to be members of PKI were killed mysteriously, some were sentenced to death or life by military tribunal, and many were send to exile at the Buru Island in the Province of Maluku.
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Afterward, the regime make efforts to maintain power among others by silencing oppositions, limiting political parties, fabricating general elections, etc. The worst thing was that said regime practiced and condone overwhelming corruption, bribery, and all other evil things for the nation, that when Soeharto was forced to stepped down on 21 May 1998, the country has to be treated under intensive care of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Considering the similarity between what happened in Egypt today and Indonesia in 1966, I felt that it would be best for Egypt to learn from our experiences so that they could avoid the terrible things that happened to Indonesia when we were under military/authoritarian regime.