Reformasi, 25 Years On

Suharto stepped down as president on May 21, 1998. An authoritarian mindset has returned a quarter-century later.

Raymundus Rikang

May 22, 2023

A WORSENING economic crisis, coupled with a movement of university students, democracy activists, workers, journalists and other groups forced President Suharto to step down on May 21, 1998. He ended his reign of more than three decades, marking the start of a more open and democratic era for Indonesia.

Twenty-five years after those tumultuous events, actors of the 1998 Reformasi (reform) movement went on to do different things. Some scrambled t

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