ABSTRACT
On 21 May 1998, Soeharto, President of Indonesia for thirty-two years, stepped aside (lengser) amidst economic and monetary crisis (krismon) and social and political unrest. The economic calamity-a flow-on from the collapse of the Thai baht in July 1997 that caused many foreign investors to re-evaluate their portfolios in Indonesia2-unraveled much of the economic development achieved during Soeharto’s time in power, with Indonesia losing 13.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 1997 alone, and its currency plummeting from Rp2,000 per US dollar to almost Rp20,000 by February 1998.
