In his 32 years as the undisputed ruler of Indonesia, Suharto did not suppress memory as much as wield it like a weapon. His "New Order," he declared, had brought stability to an archipelago that was less a nation than a factory for political chaos, full of secessionists, radical Muslims, communists and renegade soldiers fomenting catastrophe. But in a swirl of the very disorder he claimed to have dispelled, Suharto was forced last May to relinquish power to a trusted disciple, B.J. Habibie. Even that move could not stem the unrest, and after six months of political tension and economic hardship,...
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