BOOK REVIEW
Bare bones of Suharto's secrets
Sukarno and the Indonesian Coup by Helen-Louise Hunter

Reviewed by Andrew Symon

SINGAPORE - Indonesia's former president Suharto took many secrets with him to his final resting place on his death in late January. But none were arguably as important as the unanswered questions about his role in the attempted 1965 coup d'etat - portrayed at the time as being masterminded by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) - and how he leveraged those events to maneuver into power, replacing the left-leaning president Sukarno.
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As Hunter writes, the attempted coup of 1965 and its outcome was one of the most significant events of the 20th century, not just for Indonesia, but internationally: "The decimation of the Indonesian Communist Party ... and the complete turnabout in Indonesia's international alignment - from that of communist China's close ally in growing estrangement from the rest of the world ... to a new posture as friend of the West ... was nothing less than an upset of the world balance of power."
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Full book review at <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JC08Ae01.html>

Sukarno and the Indonesian Coup: The Untold Story by Helen-Louise Hunter. Praeger Security International (May 30, 2007) . ISBN-10: 0275974383. Price US$75, 216 pages.

Andrew Symon is a Singapore-based journalist and analyst who was based in Jakarta from 1992-97. He may be reached at andrew.symon@yahoo.com.sg