Independence veteran Nasution dies at 81
Thursday, September 7, 2000

Retired general Abdul Haris Nasution

Jakarta: One of the most important figures in Indonesian history, retired general Abdul Haris Nasution, died yesterday aged 81.

Mr Nasution was the architect of the Indonesian armed forces' controversial role in politics and domination of civilian society that lasted for more than 30 years until the fall of former president Soeharto in 1998.

This system, known as dual function, is being phased out under President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Mr Nasution was one of the masterminds of the strategy used by the then fledgling Indonesian guerilla army in fighting the Dutch colonial army in the 1940s.

As Indonesia struggled to emerge as a nation, he served as army chief, supreme military commander and national security minister. He chaired the provisional People's Consultative Assembly, the top legislature, that rejected the 1967 accountability speech of the country's first president, Dr Sukarno, appointing Soeharto caretaker president the same year and president in 1968.

In the later years of Soeharto's rule, Mr Nasution became a critic of the regime that is now widely discredited as corrupt and repressive, joining the influential Petition 50 dissident group.

During the coup on September 30, 1965, he escaped arrest by alleged communist-backed forces but his infant daughter and his adjutant were killed in a night raid on his house. Six other top army generals were abducted and later killed. A portrait of his daughter was a feature in his house in Jakarta, where visitors could still see bullet holes in the wall.

Relatives said Mr Nasution died in hospital from "several complications".

Lindsay Murdoch