title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: In 2007, Kiyoko was approached by former pop-star Vitamin C to join an all-girl singing and dancing group. She joined Allie Gonino, Tinashe, Kelsey Sanders (later replaced by Lauren Hudson), and Marisol Esparza to form the Stunners. Six months after forming, the group signed with Columbia Records and released a single titled "Bubblegum" to iTunes along with the official video for the single. They also contributed a cover of the song "Let's Hear It for the Boy" to the "iCarly" soundtrack. In 2009, the group left Columbia Records, signed a production deal with Lions gate Entertainment, and shot a music video for their promo single "We Got It", which was released on February 22, 2010. In 2007, Kiyoko starred in her first television role in "Unfabulous", being credited as Hayley Alcroft. After graduating high school in 2009, Kiyoko booked her first big movie, starring as Velma Dinkley in "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins", a role she almost did not audition for due to her image. In a 2017 interview, she stated she struggles to find acting roles as a biracial woman. The TV movie premiered on September 13, 2009, and was a huge success. It brought in 6.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched program in Cartoon Network's history. She reprised the role in the movie's sequel, "Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster", which premiered on October 16, 2010. The sequel drew 3.4 million viewers. In 2010, Kiyoko also guest starred in four episodes of Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place" in the role of Stevie Nichols, an evil wizard.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: The Stunners signed to Universal Republic Records in 2010 and released their first single "Dancin' Around the Truth", which featured the New Boyz. The music video for the song premiered June 2, just before the group was announced as an opening act on Justin Bieber's My World Tour. A full album was planned, but cancelled when the group split in 2011. Kiyoko claimed that she wanted to be in control of her own music. Kiyoko began work on the Disney Channel movie "Lemonade Mouth" in 2010, starring in a lead role as rebellious teenager Stella Yamada. The film premiered on April 15, 2011, with 5.7 million viewers. Kiyoko later guest starred in the episode "Skater Girl Island" of Disney XD's "Zeke and Luther" which aired May 23, 2011. A sequel to "Lemonade Mouth" was cancelled prior to pre-production when Disney released a statement saying that "they felt the movie had completed its story within the first film."


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: In February 2012, Kiyoko landed a small role in "", a Lifetime TV movie and remake of the 1980 film "The Blue Lagoon". The movie premiered on June 16, 2012. She portrayed the character Gabi in a recurring role on ABC Family's "The Fosters" and later landed the role of Raven Ramirez in "". She also portrayed Shannie in the Netflix movie "XOXO", which premiered in August 2016.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: On March 12, 2013, Kiyoko released her debut EP, "A Belle to Remember". The album was partially crowdfunded through MusicPledge. Immediately following its release, Kiyoko began writing new music in London with British producer James Flannigan. She announced via Facebook in 2014 that her next EP was finished and she would be debuting the songs at a show later that month. The songs were recorded in her parents' garage in Los Angeles with Flannigan. Kiyoko also collaborated with Swedish producer Anders Grahn. During this time, Kiyoko was affiliated with Maker Studios, releasing covers of "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" and medleys of Valentine's Day themed songs on the Maker Music YouTube channel with AJ Rafael.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: Her second EP, "This Side of Paradise", was released on February 3, 2015. The music video for her single "Girls Like Girls" was released on June 24, 2015. After co-directing the video for "Girls Like Girls" (which as of June 2019 has over 110 million views), Kiyoko assumed full directorial responsibilities for her next music video. "Cliff's Edge" was released via Vevo in November 2015.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: After her 25th birthday party, Kiyoko hit her head and suffered a concussion. She was concurrently diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and depression. In a 2018 interview, Kiyoko said "I couldn't create, and I was like 'If I can't create, what's the point? I have no purpose.'" She started resting with citrine pieces on her forehead and started using a citrine crystal, which inspired the name for her third EP. In 2016, she released the single "Gravel to Tempo" and its music video from her next EP, "Citrine". The EP was released on September 30, 2016, via EMPIRE and Atlantic. Her third fully self-directed music video for the song "One Bad Night" was premiered via Vice on October 11, 2016, in order to promote the EP. A new single called "Sleepover" was released alongside its music video on March 2, 2017, via BuzzFeed. Following that, the self-directed music video for her single "Feelings" was released on October 19, 2017. On December 21, 2017, Kiyoko announced her debut studio album, "Expectations". The third single, "Curious" was released on January 11, 2018, with the album's pre-order, alongside its music video, directed by Kiyoko and James Larese, and which premiered on "Total Request Live". In March, Kiyoko was announced as a supporting act for the first leg of Panic! At the Disco's Pray for the Wicked Tour.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: "Expectations" was released on March 30, 2018. To promote the release of her album, Kiyoko made her live TV debut and performed "Curious" on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on April 3, 2018. Later that month, she announced that she collaborated with Marla Vazquez and Naomi Franquiz to make a comic book based on her song, "Gravel to Tempo." The comic book was sold during the Expectations Tour. Her self-directed music video for "What I Need," featuring Kehlani, was released on May 31, 2018. In June, Kiyoko performed "He'll Never Love You (HNLY)" on "Late Night with Seth Meyers". Later in June, Kiyoko was featured in InStyle's first issue of "50 Badass Women" for her work alongside notable figures such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Emma Watson. On July 26, 2018, Kiyoko was invited by Taylor Swift to perform with her on stage at Gillette Stadium, marking Kiyoko's first stadium performance. The performance video for "What I Need" was released on August 17, 2018. At the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, Kiyoko won the award for Push Artist of the Year and performed "Curious" on stage.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: In June 2019, Kiyoko appeared in Taylor Swift's music video for "You Need to Calm Down" with other LGBT celebrities. Kiyoko released her EP "I'm Too Sensitive for This Shit" on January 14, 2020. It was preceded by singles "I Wish" on July 18, 2019, "Demons" on October 11, "L.O.V.E. Me" on November 15, and "Runaway" on December 13. The track "She" was released as the fifth and final single on the same day as the EP. On June 23, 2021, "Demons" was featured in the third episode of the Disney+ TV series "Loki".


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: On April 30, 2021, Kiyoko released "Found My Friends" as the lead single from her second studio album "Panorama", which was released on July 29, 2022. The second single from the album, "Chance", was released on June 1, 2021. On November 17, Kiyoko released a collaboration with Fletcher titled "Cherry". On May 20, 2022, Kiyoko released "For the Girls" as the third single from "Panorama".


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: Kiyoko is a lesbian. She has stated that she knew she was attracted to girls when she was six years old, coming out to her parents in the sixth grade. Upon realizing she liked girls, she grew up struggling with those feelings, fearing rejection and judgment if she came out. Kiyoko wanted to inspire confidence in young people dealing with the same struggles. Kiyoko's music is focused on her story and emotions she's experienced while coming to terms with her identity. The "This Side of Paradise" music video focused on her struggles with expressing her true self and the "Gravel to Tempo" music video draws on her experiences with having crushes on girls while growing up. In a 2016 interview, she expressed her frustration about not connecting to people the way she wanted. When Lily May-Young, one of the co-writers for "Girls Like Girls", asked Kiyoko about something about herself that no one knew and she was afraid to sing about, Kiyoko wanted to sing about the fact that she likes girls, but was struggling to be out about that. Tegan and Sara and Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" were Kiyoko's turning point and inspiration to turn to pop music. Through her music, Kiyoko works to normalize lesbian relationships in a society and music industry that she sees as being very heteronormative:


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: After seeing the impact her music has on her fans, Kiyoko has stated that she regretted not being open about her sexuality sooner. She is now dubbed "Lesbian Jesus" by her fans. Since 2018, Kiyoko has been dating former "Bachelor" contestant Becca Tilley. The couple initially kept their relationship private and confirmed it in May 2022 after Tilley appeared in Kiyoko's music video "For the Girls", which is inspired by "The Bachelor". Prior to this, Tilley used the nickname "95p" to refer to Kiyoko.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: Kiyoko's song "Mercy/Gatekeeper" talks about the depression she dealt with after suffering from her concussion.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: Since publicly coming out, Kiyoko has been an advocate for LGBT rights and is widely considered to be a gay icon by her fans. Her music videos highlight her own experiences and various LGBT-related issues. The music video for "One Bad Night" raised awareness of violence against transgender women. For Pride Month 2017, Kiyoko partnered with MeUndies to promote their "Celebrate" campaign. Each pair of underwear sold had a portion of the profit donated to the Los Angeles LGBT Center. In 2018, Kiyoko critiqued Rita Ora's song, "Girls", for its depiction of same-sex attraction and harmful implications for the LGBT community. Ora later apologized for the song's implications. After 78 bras were thrown at Kiyoko during the Expectations Tour, she and Neara Russell donated them to I Support The Girls, an organization that supports homeless women, to support homeless LGBT youth. In her acceptance speech for Push Artist of the Year at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, Kiyoko dedicated her win to queer women of color. She marched in a Pride parade for the first time, attending the 2019 World Pride Parade in New York City as the float ambassador for W Hotels Worldwide.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: In 2016, she supported Hillary Clinton and expressed dismay at Donald Trump winning the U.S. Presidential Election. In 2018, Kiyoko was praised by HeadCount for helping her fans register to vote while she was supporting Panic! at the Disco's Pray for the Wicked Tour. She endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 United States presidential election in a tweet following Biden's announcement Kamala Harris would be his running mate.


title: Hayley Kiyoko

text: During her career, Kiyoko has been nominated for the following awards for her work as an actress, musical artist, and her presence in the LGBT community. In 2015, she won the Jury Award for her role as Alisa in "Hello," "My Name is Frank". In 2018, she won a MTV Video Music Award for Push Artist of the Year.


title: Bob Denver

text: Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television series "Gilligan's Island", and beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis".


title: Bob Denver

text: Denver was born on January 9, 1935, in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in Brownwood, Texas. He graduated from Loyola University in Los Angeles, California, with a degree in political science. He acted in college productions at Loyola and met fellow student Dwayne Hickman, with whom he later co-starred in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis". After graduation, he coached physical education and taught mathematics and history at Corpus Christi School, a Catholic elementary school in Pacific Palisades, California.


title: Bob Denver

text: Most of Denver's acting career was in television, though he also appeared in several films and on Broadway. He was widely associated with the title character that he played in the 1960s television series "Gilligan's Island", and he continued to appear as Gilligan in several movies, as a guest on other television series, in personal appearances, and as a voice actor in the animated version of the series.


title: Bob Denver

text: Denver made his television debut in 1957, playing a small part in an episode of "The Silent Service" (S01 E37: "The Loss of the Tang"). While teaching at Corpus Christi in 1958, Denver was permitted to audition for a role on the sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" as a favor to his sister, who was a secretary on the production lot. He gained the role and left teaching the following year to become a regular on the series. From 1959 to 1963, he appeared on the series as Maynard G. Krebs, the teenaged beatnik best friend of Dobie Gillis, played by Dwayne Hickman. After filming the first three episodes, Denver received his draft notice, and was briefly written out of the script and replaced, but he was designated 4-F due to an old neck injury and returned to "Dobie Gillis" having missed only one episode. Denver later reprised his Maynard G. Krebs role in the television sequels "Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?" (1977) and "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis" (1988).


title: Bob Denver

text: During his time on "Dobie Gillis", Denver appeared on the NBC interview program, "Here's Hollywood". In 1963, Denver played his only major dramatic role on television, as a physician (Dr. Paul Garrett) in one episode of "Dr. Kildare", telecast on October 10, 1963; the episode, "If You Can't Believe the Truth ...", also featured Barbara Eden and Ken Berry. Between the end of "Dobie Gillis" and the beginning of "Gilligan's Island", Denver appeared in an episode of "The Farmer's Daughter" and in the final episode of "The Danny Thomas Show". He also had a one-episode role replacing the actor who played Dudley A. "Dud" Wash, the fiancé of Charlene Darling of the Darlings, on "The Andy Griffith Show" which was aired March 30, 1964. This was done by the network to promote Denver's face and make him more familiar to the viewing audience since "Gilligan's Island" was about to go on air.


title: Bob Denver

text: Following the cancellation of "Dobie Gillis", Denver landed the title role on the sitcom "Gilligan's Island", which ran for three seasons (1964–67) on CBS, and became a staple of later syndication. His role as the well-meaning but bumbling first mate among a small group of shipwrecked castaways became the one for which he is most remembered. During the run, Denver privately went out of his way to help his co-stars who warmly appreciated his efforts, such as successfully demanding that Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells be included in the series' opening credits and insisting that Wells get an equal share of the series' publicity with Tina Louise. A decade after the series was canceled, Denver played Gilligan in the made-for-TV reunion movies "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" (1978), "The Castaways on Gilligan's Island" (1979), and "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island" (1981). He also lent his voice to the animated series "The New Adventures of Gilligan" and its sequel "Gilligan's Planet". During the 1980s and 1992, he reprised the character of Gilligan for numerous cameo appearances, including episodes of "ALF", "Meego" and "Baywatch", and played a bartender in the film "Back to the Beach" (1987).


title: Bob Denver

text: After "Gilligan's Island", Denver went on to star on other TV comedy series, including "The Good Guys" (1968–1970), "Dusty's Trail" (1973-1974) (a show similar to "Gilligan's Island", involving a lost wagon train headed to California), and the Sid and Marty Krofft children's program "Far Out Space Nuts" (1975). Four episodes of "Dusty's Trail" were later combined to create a feature film, "The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West" (1976).


title: Bob Denver

text: Denver's other television roles included guest appearances on multiple episodes of "Love, American Style"; "The Love Boat"; and "Fantasy Island". In 1983, he starred in the television pilot "The Invisible Woman" as the bumbling mad scientist uncle of the title character.


title: Bob Denver

text: Denver's first feature film appearance was in the service farce, "A Private's Affair" (1959), with Sal Mineo. Credited as Robert Denver, he had a small role in the Jimmy Stewart film, "Take Her, She's Mine" (1963), playing a beatnik poet working at a coffee shop. Denver also appeared in the beach film "For Those Who Think Young" (1964) with Tina Louise prior to the development of "Gilligan's Island".


title: Bob Denver

text: Other films in which Denver appeared include "Who's Minding the Mint?" (1967), "The Sweet Ride" (1968), "Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady?" (1968) with Phyllis Diller, and "The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West" (1976). In 1983, he appeared in the television movie "High School U.S.A.". His final role was a small part in the Frankie Avalon-Annette Funicello comedy "Back to the Beach" (1987).


title: Bob Denver

text: In 1970, Denver replaced Woody Allen in the original Broadway production of Allen's comedy "Play It Again, Sam", earning praise from "The New York Times" critic Clive Barnes for conveying "a genuine clown-like wistfulness" that Barnes had found lacking in Allen's own performance in the starring role.


title: Bob Denver

text: Denver was married four times. His wives were: Maggie Ryan (1960–1966), Jean Webber (1967–1970), Carole Abrahams (1972–1975), and Dreama Perry. He fathered two sons, Patrick and Colin, and two daughters, Megan and Emily.


title: Bob Denver

text: On February 7, 1971, Denver was arrested in Anderson, California for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in his car and pleaded no contest for a reduced sentence of a $250 fine. In 1998, he was arrested for marijuana delivered to his home, originally saying that the delivery came from Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island", but he later refused to name her in court, testifying that "some crazy fan must have sent it." He pleaded no contest and received six months probation.


title: Bob Denver

text: Later in his life, Denver returned to his adopted home of Princeton, West Virginia, and became an FM radio personality. He and his wife Dreama ran a small "oldies format" radio station, WGAG-LP 93.1 FM. He also earned a small income making public appearances, often costumed as Gilligan. In 1992, he played Gilligan to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a West Virginia fundraiser for the organization.


title: Bob Denver

text: Denver was a heavy smoker. He received cancer treatment and underwent heart bypass surgery in 2005. On September 2, 2005, he died at age 70 from complications including pneumonia following throat cancer surgery at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto led Indonesia through a dictatorship for 31 years, from the fall of Sukarno in 1967 until his own resignation in 1998. The legacy of his 31-year rule, and his US$38 billion net worth, is still debated at home and abroad.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto was born in the small village of Kemusuk, in the Godean area near the city of Yogyakarta, during the Dutch colonial era. He grew up in humble circumstances. His Javanese Muslim parents divorced not long after his birth, and he lived with foster parents for much of his childhood. During the Japanese occupation era, Suharto served in the Japanese-organized Indonesian security forces. During Indonesia's independence struggle, he joined the newly formed Indonesian Army. There, Suharto rose to the rank of major general some time after full Indonesian independence was achieved.


title: Suharto

text: An attempted coup on 30 September and 1 October 1965 was countered by Suharto-led troops. According to the official history made by the army, this attempt was backed by the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). The army subsequently led a nationwide violent anti-communist purge and Suharto wrested power from Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno. He was appointed acting president in 1967 and elected president the following year. He then mounted a social campaign known as "de-Sukarnoization" to reduce the former president's influence. Support for Suharto's presidency was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s, the New Order's increasing authoritarianism and widespread corruption were a source of discontent and, following the 1997 Asian financial crisis which led to widespread unrest, he resigned in May 1998. Suharto died in January 2008 and was given a state funeral.


title: Suharto

text: Under his "New Order" administration, Suharto constructed a strong, centralised and military-dominated government. What started as an oligarchic military dictatorship evolved into a personalistic authoritarian regime centered around Suharto. An ability to maintain stability over a sprawling and diverse Indonesia and an avowedly anti-communist stance won him the economic and diplomatic support of the West during the Cold War. For most of his presidency, Indonesia experienced significant industrialisation, economic growth, and improved levels of educational attainment. Plans to award the status of National Hero to Suharto are being considered by the Indonesian government and have been debated vigorously in Indonesia. According to Transparency International, Suharto was one of the most corrupt leaders in modern history, having embezzled an alleged US$15–35 billion during his rule.


title: Suharto

text: Like many Javanese, Suharto had only one name. Religious contexts in recent years has sometimes called him as "Haji" or "Al-Haj Mohammed Suharto", but these names were not part of his formal name nor generally used. The spelling "Suharto" reflects modern Indonesian orthography, although the general approach in Indonesia is to rely on the spelling preferred by the person concerned. At the time of his birth, the standard transcription was "Soeharto", and he used the original spelling throughout his life. The international English-language press generally uses the spelling 'Suharto' while the Indonesian government and media use 'Soeharto'.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto was born on 8 June 1921 in a plaited-bamboo-walled house in the hamlet of Kemusuk, a part of the larger village of Godean, then part of the Dutch East Indies. The village is west of Yogyakarta, the cultural heartland of the Javanese. Born to ethnic Javanese parents, he was the only child of his father's second marriage. His father, Kertosudiro, had two children from his previous marriage and was a village irrigation official. His mother, Sukirah, a local woman, was distantly related to Hamengkubuwono V by his first concubine. Five weeks after Suharto's birth, his mother suffered a nervous breakdown; he was placed in the care of his paternal great-aunt, Kromodirjo as a result. Kertosudiro and Sukirah divorced early in Suharto's life and both later remarried. At the age of three, Suharto was returned to his mother, who had married a local farmer whom Suharto helped in the rice paddies. In 1929, Suharto's father took him to live with his sister, who was married to an agricultural supervisor, Prawirowihardjo, in the town of Wuryantoro in a poor and low-yielding farming area near Wonogiri. Over the following two years, he was taken back to his mother in Kemusuk by his stepfather and then back again to Wuryantoro by his father.


title: Suharto

text: Prawirowihardjo took to raising the boy as his own, which provided Suharto with a father-figure and a stable home in Wuryantoro. In 1931, he moved to the town of Wonogiri to attend the primary school, living first with Prawirohardjo's son Sulardi, and later with his father's relative Hardjowijono. While living with Hardjowijono, Suharto became acquainted with Darjatmo, a "dukun" ("shaman") of Javanese mystical arts and faith healing. The experience deeply affected him and later, as president, Suharto surrounded himself with powerful symbolic language. Difficulties in paying the fees for his education in Wonogiri resulted in another move back to his father in Kemusuk, where he continued studying at a lower-fee Schakel Muhammadiyah (middle school) in the city of Yogyakarta until 1938. Suharto's upbringing contrasts with that of leading Indonesian nationalists such as Sukarno in that he is believed to have had little interest in anti-colonialism, or political concerns beyond his immediate surroundings. Unlike Sukarno and his circle, Suharto had little or no contact with European colonisers. Consequently, he did not learn to speak Dutch or other European languages in his youth. He learned to speak Dutch after his induction into the Dutch military in 1940.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto finished middle school at the age of 18 and took a clerical job at a bank in Wuryantaro. He was forced to resign after a bicycle mishap tore his only working clothes. Following a spell of unemployment, he joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) in June 1940 and undertook basic training in Gombong near Yogyakarta. With the Netherlands under German occupation and the Japanese pressing for access to Indonesian oil supplies, the Dutch had opened up the KNIL to large intakes of previously excluded Javanese. Suharto was assigned to Battalion XIII at Rampal, graduated from a short training course at KNIL "Kaderschool" in Gombong to become a sergeant, and was posted to a KNIL reserve battalion in Cisarua. Following the Dutch surrender to the invading Japanese forces in March 1942, Suharto abandoned his KNIL uniform and went back to Wurjantoro. After months of unemployment, he then became one of the thousands of Indonesians who took the opportunity to join Japanese-organised security forces by joining the Yogyakarta police force.


title: Suharto

text: In October 1943, Suharto was transferred from the police force to the newly formed Japanese-sponsored militia, the PETA (Defenders of the Fatherland) in which Indonesians served as officers. In his training to serve with the rank of "shodancho" (platoon commander) he encountered a localised version of the Japanese "bushido", or "way of the warrior", used to indoctrinate troops. This training encouraged an anti-Dutch and pro-nationalist thought, although toward the aims of the Imperial Japanese militarists. The encounter with a nationalistic and militarist ideology is believed to have profoundly influenced Suharto's own way of thinking. Suharto was posted to a PETA coastal defence battalion at Wates, south of Yogyakarta until he was admitted for training for company commander ("chudancho") in Bogor from April to August 1944. As company commander, he conducted training for new PETA recruits in Surakarta, Jakarta, and Madiun. The Japanese surrender and Proclamation of Indonesian Independence in August 1945 occurred while Suharto was posted to the remote Brebeg area (on the slopes of Mount Wilis) to train new NCOs to replace those executed by the Japanese in the aftermath of the failed February 1945 PETA Revolt in Blitar, led by Supriyadi.


title: Suharto

text: Two days after the Japanese surrender in the Pacific, independence leaders Sukarno and Hatta declared Indonesian independence and were appointed president and vice-president respectively of the new Republic. Suharto disbanded his regiment under orders from the Japanese command and returned to Yogyakarta. As republican groups rose to assert Indonesian independence, Suharto joined a new unit of the newly formed Indonesian army. Based on his PETA experience, he was appointed deputy commander, and subsequently, a battalion commander when the republican forces were formally organised in October 1945. Suharto was involved in fighting against Allied troops around Magelang and Semarang and was subsequently appointed the head of a brigade as lieutenant-colonel, having earned respect as a field commander. In the early years of the war, he organised local armed forces into Battalion X of Regiment I; Suharto was promoted to Major and became Battalion X's leader. The arrival of the Allies, under a mandate to return the situation to the "status quo ante bellum", quickly led to clashes between Indonesian republicans and Allied forces, i.e. returning Dutch and assisting British forces.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto led his Division X troops to halt an advance by the Dutch T ("Tiger") Brigade on 17 May 1946. It earned him the respect of Lieutenant-Colonel Sunarto Kusumodirjo, who invited him to draft the working guidelines for the Battle Leadership Headquarters (MPP), a body created to organise and unify the command structure of the Indonesian Nationalist forces. The military forces of the still infant Republic of Indonesia were constantly restructuring. By August 1946, Suharto was head of the 22nd Regiment of Division III (the "Diponegoro Division") stationed in Yogyakarta. In late 1946, the Diponegoro Division assumed responsibility for the defence of the west and southwest of Yogyakarta from Dutch forces. Conditions at the time are reported by Dutch sources as miserable; Suharto himself is reported as assisting smuggling syndicates in the transport of opium through the territory he controlled, to generate income. In September 1948, Suharto was dispatched to meet Musso, chairman of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in an unsuccessful attempt at a peaceful reconciliation of the communist uprising in Madiun.


title: Suharto

text: In December 1948, the Dutch launched "Operation Crow", which resulted in the capture of Sukarno and Hatta and the capital Yogyakarta. Suharto was appointed to lead the "Wehrkreise III", consisting of two battalions, which waged guerrilla warfare against the Dutch from the hills south of Yogyakarta. In dawn raids on 1 March 1949, Suharto's forces and local militia recaptured the city, holding it until noon. Suharto's later accounts had him as the lone plotter, although other sources say Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of Yogyakarta, and the Panglima of the Third Division ordered the attack. However, General Abdul Nasution said that Suharto took great care in preparing the "General Offensive" (Indonesian: "Serangan Umum"). Civilians sympathetic to the Republican cause within the city had been galvanised by the show of force which proved that the Dutch had failed to win the guerrilla war. Internationally, the United Nations Security Council pressured the Dutch to cease the military offensive and to recommence negotiations, which eventually led to the Dutch withdrawal from the Yogyakarta area in June 1949 and to complete transfer of sovereignty in December 1949. Suharto was responsible for the takeover of Yogyakarta city from the withdrawing Dutch in June 1949.


title: Suharto

text: During the Revolution, Suharto married Siti Hartinah (known as Madam Tien), the daughter of a minor noble in the Mangkunegaran royal house of Solo. The arranged marriage was enduring and supportive, lasting until Tien's death in 1996. The couple had six children: Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana (Tutut, born 1949), Sigit Harjojudanto (born 1951), Bambang Trihatmodjo (born 1953), Siti Hediati ("Titiek Suharto", born 1959), Hutomo Mandala Putra (Tommy, born 1962), and Siti Hutami Endang Adiningish (Mamiek, born 1964). Within the Javanese upper class, it was considered acceptable for the wife to pursue genteel commerce to supplement the family budget, allowing her husband to keep his dignity in his official role. The commercial dealings of Tien, her children and grandchildren became extensive and ultimately undermined Suharto's presidency.


title: Suharto

text: In the years following Indonesian independence, Suharto served in the Indonesian National Army, primarily in Java. In 1950, as a colonel, he led the Garuda Brigade in suppressing the Makassar Uprising, a rebellion of former colonial soldiers who supported the Dutch-established State of East Indonesia and its federal entity, the United States of Indonesia. During his year in Makassar, Suharto became acquainted with his neighbours, the Habibie family, whose eldest son BJ Habibie was later Suharto's vice-president, and went on to succeed him as president. In 1951–1952, Suharto led his troops in defeating the Islamic-inspired rebellion of Battalion 426 in the Klaten area of Central Java. Appointed to lead four battalions in early 1953, he organised their participation in battling Darul Islam insurgents in northwestern Central Java and anti-bandit operations in the Mount Merapi area. He also sought to stem leftist sympathies amongst his troops. His experience in this period left Suharto with a deep distaste for both Islamic and communist radicalism.


title: Suharto

text: Between 1956 and 1959, he served in the important position of commander of Diponegoro Division based in Semarang, responsible for Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces. His relationship with prominent businessmen Liem Sioe Liong and Bob Hasan, which extended throughout his presidency, began in Central Java, where he was involved in a series of "profit-generating" enterprises conducted primarily to keep the poorly funded military unit functioning. Army anti-corruption investigations implicated Suharto in a 1959 smuggling scandal. Relieved of his position, he was transferred to the army's Staff and Command School ("Seskoad") in the city of Bandung.


title: Suharto

text: While in Bandung, he was promoted to brigadier-general, and in late 1960, promoted to army deputy chief of staff. On 6 March 1961, he was given an additional command, as head of the army's new Strategic Reserve ("Korps Tentara I Cadangan Umum AD", later KOSTRAD), a ready-reaction air-mobile force based in Jakarta. In January 1962, Suharto was promoted to the rank of major general and appointed to lead Operation Mandala, a joint army-navy-air force command based in Makassar. This formed the military side of the campaign to win western New Guinea from the Dutch, who were preparing it for its own independence, separate from Indonesia. In 1965, Suharto was assigned operational command of Sukarno's "Konfrontasi", against the newly formed Malaysia. Fearful that "Konfrontasi" would leave Java thinly covered by the army, and hand control to the 2 million-strong Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), he authorised a Kostrad intelligence officer, Ali Murtopo, to open secret contacts with the British and Malaysians.


title: Suharto

text: Tensions between the military and communists increased in April 1965, when Sukarno endorsed the immediate implementation of the PKI's proposal for a "fifth armed force" consisting of armed peasants and workers. However, this idea was rejected by the army's leadership as being tantamount to the PKI establishing its own armed forces. In May, the "Gilchrist Document" aroused Sukarno's fear of a military plot to overthrow him, a fear which he repeatedly mentioned during the next few months. On his independence day speech in August, Sukarno declared his intention to commit Indonesia to an anti-imperialist alliance with China and other communist countries and warned the army not to interfere.


title: Suharto

text: While Sukarno devoted his energy for domestic and international politics, the economy of Indonesia deteriorated rapidly with worsening widespread poverty and hunger, while foreign debt obligations became unmanageable and infrastructure crumbled. Sukarno's Guided Democracy stood on fragile grounds due to the inherent conflict between its two underlying support pillars, the military and the communists. The military, nationalists, and the Islamic groups were shocked by the rapid growth of the communist party under Sukarno's protection. They feared the imminent establishment of a communist state in Indonesia. By 1965, the PKI had three million members and was particularly strong in Central Java and Bali. The party had become the most potent political party in Indonesia.


title: Suharto

text: Before dawn on 1 October 1965, six army generals were kidnapped and executed in Jakarta by soldiers from the Presidential Guard, Diponegoro Division, and Brawidjaja Division. Soldiers occupied Merdeka Square including the areas in front of the Presidential Palace, the national radio station, and telecommunications centre. At 7:10 am Untung bin Syamsuri announced on the radio that the "30 September Movement" had forestalled a coup attempt on Sukarno by "CIA-backed power-mad generals", and that it was "an internal army affair". The movement never made any attempt on Suharto's life. Suharto had been in Jakarta army hospital that evening with his three-year-old son Tommy who had a scalding injury. It was here that he was visited by Colonel Abdul Latief, a key member of the Movement and close family friend of Suharto. According to Latief's later testimony, the conspirators assumed Suharto to be a Sukarno-loyalist; hence Latief went to inform him of the impending kidnapping plan to save Sukarno from treacherous generals, upon which Suharto seemed to offer his neutrality.


title: Suharto

text: Upon being told of the killings, Suharto went to KOSTRAD headquarters just before dawn from where he could see soldiers occupying Merdeka Square. He mobilised KOSTRAD and RPKAD (now Kopassus) special forces to seize control of the centre of Jakarta, capturing key strategic sites including the radio station without resistance. Suharto announced over the radio at 9:00 pm that six generals had been kidnapped by "counter-revolutionaries" and that the 30 September Movement actually intended to overthrow Sukarno. He said he was in control of the army, and that he would crush the Movement and safeguard Sukarno. Suharto issued an ultimatum to Halim Air Force Base, where the G30S had based themselves and where Sukarno, air force commander Omar Dhani and PKI chairman Dipa Nusantara Aidit had gathered, causing them to disperse before Suhartoist soldiers occupied the airbase on 2 October after short fighting. With the failure of the poorly organised coup, and having secured authority from the president to restore order and security, Suharto's faction was firmly in control of the army by 2 October (he was officially appointed army commander on 14 October). On 5 October, Suharto led a dramatic public ceremony to bury the generals' bodies.


title: Suharto

text: Complicated and partisan theories continue to this day over the identity of the attempted coup's organisers and their aims. The army's version, and subsequently that of the "New Order", was that the PKI was solely responsible. A propaganda campaign by the army and Islamic and Catholic student groups convinced both Indonesian and international audiences that it was a communist coup attempt, and that the killings were cowardly atrocities against Indonesian heroes. The army in alliance with civilian religious groups, and backed by the United States and other Western powers, led a campaign of mass killings to purge Indonesian society, government, and armed forces of the Communist Party of Indonesia and other leftist organisations. The purge spread from Jakarta to much of the rest of the country. The most widely accepted estimates are that at least 500,000 to over 1 million were killed. As many as 1.5 million were imprisoned at one stage or another. As a result of the purge, one of Sukarno's three pillars of support, the Indonesian Communist Party, was effectively eliminated by the other two, the military and political Islam. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency described the purge as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century".


title: Suharto

text: Sukarno continued to command loyalty from large sections of the armed forces as well as the general population, and Suharto was careful not to be seen to be seizing power in his own coup. For eighteen months following the quashing of the 30 September Movement, there was a complicated process of political manoeuvres against Sukarno, including student agitation, stacking of parliament, media propaganda and military threats. In January 1966, university students under the banner of KAMI, began demonstrations against the Sukarno government voicing demands for the disbandment of PKI and control of hyperinflation. The students received support and protection from the army. Street fights broke out between the students and pro-Sukarno loyalists with the pro-Suharto students prevailing due to army protection.


title: Suharto

text: In February 1966, Sukarno promoted Suharto to lieutenant-general (and to full general in July 1966). The killing of a student demonstrator and Sukarno's order for the disbandment of KAMI in February 1966 further galvanised public opinion against the president. On 11 March 1966, the appearance of unidentified troops around Merdeka Palace during a cabinet meeting (which Suharto had not attended) forced Sukarno to flee to Bogor Palace (60 km away) by helicopter. Three pro-Suharto generals, Major-General Basuki Rahmat, Brigadier-General M Jusuf, and Brigadier-General Amirmachmud went to Bogor to meet Sukarno. There, they persuaded and secured a presidential decree from Sukarno (see "Supersemar") that gave Suharto authority to take any action necessary to maintain security. Using the "Supersemar" letter, Suharto ordered the banning of PKI the following day and proceeded to purge pro-Sukarno elements from the parliament, the government and military, accusing them of being communist sympathisers.


title: Suharto

text: The army arrested 15 cabinet ministers and forced Sukarno to appoint a new cabinet consisting of Suharto supporters. The army arrested pro-Sukarno and pro-communist members of the MPRS (parliament), and Suharto replaced chiefs of the navy, air force, and the police force with his supporters, who then began an extensive purge within each service. In June 1966, the now-purged parliament passed 24 resolutions including the banning of Marxism–Leninism, ratifying the Supersemar, and stripping Sukarno of his title of President for Life. Against the wishes of Sukarno, the government ended the Konfrontasi with Malaysia and rejoined the United Nations (Sukarno had removed Indonesia from the UN in the previous year). Suharto did not seek Sukarno's outright removal at this MPRS session due to the remaining support for the president among some elements of the armed forces. By January 1967, Suharto felt confident that he had removed all significant support for Sukarno within the armed forces, and the MPRS decided to hold another session to impeach Sukarno. On 22 February 1967, Sukarno announced he would resign from the presidency, and on 12 March, the MPRS session stripped him of his remaining power and named Suharto acting president. Sukarno was placed under house arrest in Bogor Palace; little more was heard from him, and he died in June 1970. On 27 March 1968, the MPRS appointed Suharto for the first of his five-year terms as president.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto promoted his "New Order", as opposed to Sukarno's "Old Order", as a society based on the Pancasila ideology. After initially being careful not to offend sensitivities of Islamic scholars who feared Pancasila might develop into a quasi-religious cult, Suharto secured a parliamentary resolution in 1983 which obliged all organisations in Indonesia to adhere to Pancasila as a fundamental principle. He also instituted mandatory Pancasila training programs for all Indonesians, from primary school students to office workers. In practice, however, the vagueness of Pancasila was exploited by Suharto's government to justify their actions and to condemn their opponents as "anti-Pancasila". The New Order also implemented the "Dwifungsi" ("Dual Function") policy which enabled the military to have an active role in all levels of the Indonesian government, economy, and society.


title: Suharto

text: Having been appointed president, Suharto still needed to share power with various elements including Indonesian generals who considered Suharto as mere "primus inter pares", and Islamic and student groups who participated in the anti-Communist purge. Suharto, aided by his "Office of Personal Assistants" ("Aspri") clique of military officers from his days as commander of Diponegoro Division, particularly Ali Murtopo, began to systematically cement his hold on power by subtly sidelining potential rivals while rewarding loyalists with political position and monetary incentives. Having successfully stood-down MPRS chairman General Abdul Haris Nasution's 1968 attempt to introduce a bill which would have severely curtailed presidential authority, Suharto had him removed from his position as MPRS chairman in 1969 and forced his early retirement from the military in 1972. In 1967, generals Hartono Rekso Dharsono, Kemal Idris, and Sarwo Edhie Wibowo (dubbed "New Order Radicals") opposed Suharto's decision to allow participation of existing political parties in elections in favour of a non-ideological two-party system similar to those found in many Western countries. Suharto sent Dharsono overseas as an ambassador, while Idris and Wibowo were sent to distant North Sumatra and South Sulawesi as regional commanders.


title: Suharto

text: Suharto's previously strong relationship with the student movement soured over the increasing authoritarianism and corruption of his administration. While many original leaders of the 1966 student movement ("Angkatan '66") were successfully co-opted into the regime, Suharto was faced with large student demonstrations challenging the legitimacy of 1971 elections (""Golput"" movement), the costly construction of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park (1972), the domination of foreign capitalists (Malari Incident of 1974), and the lack of term limits of Suharto's presidency (1978). The regime responded by imprisoning many student activists (such as future national figures Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, Adnan Buyung Nasution, Hariman Siregar, and Syahrir), and even sending troops to occupy the campus of ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) from January–March 1978. In April 1978, Suharto moved decisively by issuing a decree on "Normalisation of Campus Life" (NKK) which prohibited political activities on-campus not related to academic pursuits.


title: Suharto

text: On 15–16 January 1974, Suharto faced a significant challenge when violent riots broke out in Jakarta during a visit by the Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka. Students demonstrating against increasing dominance of Japanese investors were encouraged by General Sumitro, deputy commander of the armed forces. Sumitro was an ambitious general who disliked the strong influence of Suharto's Aspri inner circle. Suharto learned that the riots were engineered by Sumitro to destabilise the government, resulting in Sumitro's dismissal and forced retirement. This incident is referred to as the Malari Incident ("Malapetaka Lima Belas Januari" / Disaster of 15 January). However, Suharto also disbanded Aspri to appease popular dissent. In 1980, fifty prominent political figures signed the Petition of Fifty, which criticised Suharto's use of Pancasila to silence his critics. Suharto refused to address the petitioners' concerns, and some of them were imprisoned with others having restrictions imposed on their movements.


title: Suharto

text: To placate demands from civilian politicians for the holding of elections, as manifested in MPRS resolutions of 1966 and 1967, Suharto government formulated a series of laws regarding elections as well as the structure and duties of parliament which were passed by MPRS in November 1969 after protracted negotiations. The law provided for a parliament ("Madjelis Permusjawaratan Rakjat"/MPR) with the power to elect presidents, consisting of a house of representatives ("Dewan Perwakilan Rakjat"/DPR) and regional representatives. 100 of the 460 members of DPR would be directly appointed by the government, while the remaining seats were allocated to political organizations based on results of the general election. This mechanism ensures significant government control over legislative affairs, particularly the appointment of presidents.


title: Suharto

text: To participate in the elections, Suharto realised the need to align himself with a political party. After initially considering alignment with Sukarno's old party the PNI, in 1969 Suharto decided to take over control of an obscure military-run federation of NGOs called Golkar ("Functional Groups") and transform it into his electoral vehicle under the coordination of his right-hand man Ali Murtopo. The first general election was held on 3 July 1971 with ten participants; consisting of Golkar, four Islamic parties, as well as five nationalist and Christian parties. Campaigning on a non-ideological platform of "development", and aided by official government support and subtle intimidation tactics, Golkar managed to secure 62.8% of the popular vote. The March 1973 general session of newly elected MPR promptly appointed Suharto to second-term in office with Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX as vice-president.


title: Suharto

text: On 5 January 1973, to allow better control, the government forced the four Islamic parties to merge into PPP ("Partai Persatuan Pembangunan"/United Development Party) while the five non-Islamic parties were fused into PDI ("Partai Demokrasi Indonesia"/Indonesian Democratic Party). The government ensured that these parties never developed effective opposition by controlling their leadership while establishing the "re-call" system to remove any outspoken legislators from their positions. Using this system dubbed the "Pancasila Democracy", Suharto was re-elected unopposed by the MPR in 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998. Golkar won landslide majorities in the MPR at every election, ensuring that Suharto would be able to pass his agenda with virtually no opposition. Ultimately, he held all governing power in the country. Suharto also proceeded with various social engineering projects designed to transform Indonesian society into a de-politicised "floating mass" supportive of the national mission of "development", a concept similar to corporatism. The government formed various civil society groups to unite the populace in support of government programs. For instance, the government created the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps ("Korps Pegawai Republik Indonesia" or "KORPRI") in November 1971 as union of civil servants to ensure their loyalty, organised the FBSI ("Federasi Buruh Seluruh Indonesia") as the only legal labour union in February 1973, and established the MUI in 1975 to control Islamic clerics.


title: Suharto

text: Additionally, Suharto relied on the military to ruthlessly maintain domestic security, organised by the Kopkamtib (Operation Command for the Restoration of Security and Order) and BAKIN (State Intelligence Coordination Agency). To maintain strict control over the country, Suharto expanded the army's territorial system down to village-level, while military officers were appointed as regional heads under the rubric of the "Dwifungsi" ("Dual Function") of the military. By 1969, 70% of Indonesia's provincial governors and more than half of its district chiefs were active military officers. Suharto authorised "Operasi Trisula" which destroyed PKI-remnants trying to organise a guerrilla base in the Blitar area in 1968 and ordered several military operations that ended the communist PGRS-Paraku insurgency in West Kalimantan (1967–1972). Attacks on oil workers by the first incarnation of Free Aceh Movement separatists under Hasan di Tiro in 1977 led to the dispatch of small special forces detachments who quickly either killed or forced the movement's members to flee abroad. Notably, in March 1981, Suharto authorised a successful special forces mission to end hijacking of a Garuda Indonesia flight by Islamic extremists at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok.


title: Suharto

text: In 1968, Suharto commenced the highly successful family-planning program ("Keluarga Berentjana/KB") to stem the high population growth rate and hence increasing per-capita income. A lasting legacy from this period is the spelling reform of Indonesian language decreed by Suharto on 17 August 1972. To promote assimilation of the influential Chinese-Indonesians, the Suharto government passed several laws as part of the so-called "Basic Policy for the Solution of Chinese Problem", whereby only one Chinese-language publication (controlled by the Army) was allowed to continue, all Chinese cultural and religious expressions (including the display of Chinese characters) were prohibited from public space, Chinese schools were seized and turned into Indonesian-language public schools, and the ethnic-Chinese were forced to take-up Indonesian-sounding names; creating a systematic cultural genocide. In 1978, the government began requiring a Letter of Proof of Citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia (, or SBKRI). Although the SBKRI was legally required for all citizens of foreign descent, in practice it was generally applied only to Chinese descent. This led to difficulties for Chinese Indonesians when enrolling in state universities, applying to be civil servants, or joining the military or police.


title: Suharto

text: To stabilise the economy and to ensure long-term support for the New Order, Suharto's administration enlisted a group of mostly US-educated Indonesian economists, dubbed the "Berkeley Mafia", to formulate significant changes in economic policy. By cutting subsidies, decreasing government debt, and reforming the exchange rate mechanism, inflation was lowered from 660% in 1966 to 19% in 1969. The threat of famine was alleviated by the influx of USAID rice aid shipments from 1967 to 1968. With a lack of domestic capital that was required for economic growth, the New Order reversed Sukarno's economic self-sufficiency policies and opened selected economic sectors of the country to foreign investment through the 1967 Foreign Investment Law. Suharto travelled to Western Europe and Japan to promote investment in Indonesia. The first foreign investors to re-enter Indonesia included mining companies Freeport Sulphur Company / International Nickel Company. Following government regulatory frameworks, domestic entrepreneurs (mostly Chinese-Indonesians) emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the import-substitution light-manufacturing sector such as Astra Group and Salim Group.


title: Suharto

text: From 1967, the government secured low-interest foreign aid from ten countries grouped under the Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI) to cover its budget deficit. With the IGGI funds and the later jump in oil export revenue from the 1973 oil crisis, the government invested in infrastructure under a series of five-year plans, dubbed REPELITA ("Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun") I to VI from 1969 to 1998. Outside the formal economy, Suharto created a network of charitable organisations (""yayasan"") run by the military and his family members, which extracted "donations" from domestic and foreign enterprises in exchange for necessary government support and permits. While some proceeds were used for charitable purposes, much of the money was recycled as a slush fund to reward political allies and to maintain support for the New Order. In 1975, the state-owned oil company, Pertamina, defaulted on its foreign loans as a result of mismanagement and corruption under the leadership of Suharto's close ally, Ibnu Sutowo. The government bail-out of the company nearly doubled the national debt.


title: Suharto

text: Upon assuming power, Suharto's government adopted a policy of neutrality in the Cold War but was nevertheless quietly aligned with the Western bloc (including Japan and South Korea) to secure support for Indonesia's economic recovery. Western countries, impressed by Suharto's strong anti-communist credentials, were quick to offer their support. Diplomatic relations with China were suspended in October 1967 due to suspicion of Chinese involvement in the 30 September Movement (diplomatic relations were only restored in 1990). Due to Suharto's destruction of PKI, the Soviet Union embargoed military sales to Indonesia. However, from 1967 to 1970 foreign minister Adam Malik managed to secure several agreements to restructure massive debts incurred by Sukarno from the Soviet Union and other Eastern European communist states. Regionally, having ended confrontation with Malaysia in August 1966, Indonesia became a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in August 1967. This organisation is designed to establish a peaceful relationship between Southeast Asian countries free from conflicts such as the ongoing Vietnam War.


title: Suharto

text: In 1974, the neighbouring colony of Portuguese Timor descended into civil war after the withdrawal of Portuguese authority following the Carnation Revolution, whereby the left-wing populist Fretilin (Portuguese: "Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente") emerged triumphant. With approval from Western countries (including from U.S. president Gerald Ford and Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam during their visits to Indonesia), Suharto decided to intervene. He claimed the move was to prevent the establishment of a communist state. After an unsuccessful attempt of covert support to Timorese groups UDT and APODETI, Suharto authorised a full-scale invasion of the colony on 7 December 1975 followed with its official annexation as Indonesia's 27th province of East Timor in July 1976. The "encirclement and annihilation" campaigns of 1977–1979 broke the back of Fretilin control over the hinterlands, although continuing guerrilla resistance caused the government to maintain a strong military force in the half-island until 1999. An estimated minimum of 90,800 and maximum of 213,600 conflict-related deaths occurred in East Timor during Indonesian rule (1974–1999); namely, 17,600–19,600 killings and 73,200 to 194,000 'excess' deaths from hunger and illness; Indonesian forces were responsible for about 70% of the violent deaths.


title: Suharto

text: Indonesia's invasion and occupation of East Timor during Suharto's presidency resulted in at least 100,000 deaths. To comply with the New York Agreement of 1962 which required a plebiscite on the integration of West Irian into Indonesia before the end of 1969, the Suharto government begin organising for a so-called "Act of Free Choice" scheduled for July–August 1969. The government sent RPKAD special forces under Sarwo Edhie Wibowo which secured the surrender of several bands of former Dutch-organised militia ("Papoea Vrijwilligers Korps / PVK") at large in the jungles since the Indonesian takeover in 1963 while sending Catholic volunteers under Jusuf Wanandi to distribute consumer goods to promote pro-Indonesian sentiments. In March 1969, it was agreed that the plebiscite would be channelled via 1,025 tribal chiefs, citing the logistical challenge and political ignorance of the population. Using the above strategy, the plebiscite produced a unanimous decision for integration with Indonesia, which was duly noted by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1969.


title: Suharto

text: Real socio-economic progress sustained support for Suharto's regime across three decades. By 1996, Indonesia's poverty rate has dropped to around 11% compared with 45% in 1970. From 1966 to 1997, Indonesia recorded real GDP growth of 5.03% pa, pushing real GDP per capita upwards from US$806 to US$4,114. In 1966, the manufacturing sector made up less than 10% of GDP (mostly industries related to oil and agriculture). By 1997, manufacturing had risen to 25% of GDP, and 53% of exports consisted of manufactured products. The government invested in massive infrastructure development (notably the launching of a series of Palapa telecommunication satellites); consequently, Indonesian infrastructure in the mid-1990s was considered at par with China. Suharto was keen to capitalize on such achievements to justify his presidency, and the parliament (MPR) on 9 March 1983 granted him the title of "Father of Development".


title: Suharto

text: Suharto government's health-care programs (such as the "Puskesmas" program) increased life expectancy from 47 years (1966) to 67 years (1997) while cutting infant mortality rate by more than 60%. The government's "Inpres" program launched in 1973 resulted in primary school enrolment ratio reaching 90% by 1983 while almost eliminating the education gap between boys and girls. Sustained support for agriculture resulted in Indonesia achieving rice self-sufficiency by 1984, an unprecedented achievement which earned Suharto a gold medal from the FAO in November 1985. In the early 1980s, Suharto government responded to the fall in oil exports due to the 1980s oil glut by successfully shifting the basis of the economy to export-oriented labour-intensive manufacturing, made globally competitive by Indonesia's low wages and a series of currency devaluations. Industrialisation was mostly undertaken by Chinese-Indonesian companies which evolved into large conglomerates dominating the nation's economy.


title: Suharto

text: The largest of these conglomerates were the Salim Group led by Liem Sioe Liong (Sudono Salim), Sinar Mas Group led by Oei Ek Tjong (Eka Tjipta Widjaja), Astra Group led by Tjia Han Poen (William Soeryadjaya), Lippo Group led by Lie Mo Tie (Mochtar Riady), Barito Pacific Group led by Pang Djun Phen (Prajogo Pangestu), and Nusamba Group led by Bob Hasan. Suharto decided to support the growth of a small number of Chinese-Indonesian conglomerates since they would not pose a political challenge due to their ethnic-minority status, but from his experience, he deemed them to possess the skills and capital needed to create real growth for the country. In exchange for Suharto's patronage, the conglomerates provided vital financing for his "regime maintenance" activities.


title: Suharto

text: In the late 1980s, the Suharto government decided to de-regulate the banking sector to encourage savings and providing a domestic source of financing required for growth. Suharto decreed the "October Package of 1988" ("PAKTO 88") which eased requirements for establishing banks and extending credit; resulting in a 50% increase in the number of banks from 1989 to 1991. To promote savings, the government introduced the "TABANAS" program to the populace. The Jakarta Stock Exchange, re-opened in 1977, recorded a "bull run", due to a spree of domestic IPOs and an influx of foreign funds after the deregulation in 1990. The sudden availability of credit fuelled robust economic growth in the early 1990s, but the weak regulatory environment of the financial sector sowed the seeds of the catastrophic crisis in 1997, which eventually lead to the end of Suharto's presidency.


title: Suharto

text: The growth of the economy coincided with the rapid expansion of corruption, collusion, and nepotism ("Korupsi, Kolusi, dan Nepotisme / KKN"). In the early 1980s, Suharto's children, particularly Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana ("Tutut"), Hutomo Mandala Putra ("Tommy"), and Bambang Trihatmodjo, had grown into greedy adults. Their companies were given lucrative government contracts and protected from market competition by monopolies. Examples include the toll-expressway market which was monopolised by Tutut, the national car project monopolised by Bambang and Tommy, and even the cinema market, monopolised by 21 Cineplex (owned by Suharto's cousin Sudwikatmono). The family is said to control about 36,000 km of real estate in Indonesia, including 100,000 m of prime office space in Jakarta and nearly 40% of the land in East Timor. Additionally, Suharto's family members received free shares in 1,251 of Indonesia's most lucrative domestic companies (mostly run by Suharto's ethnic-Chinese cronies), while foreign-owned companies were encouraged to establish "strategic partnerships" with Suharto family companies. Meanwhile, the myriad of "yayasan"s run by the Suharto family grew even larger, levying millions of dollars in "donations" from the public and private sectors each year.


title: Suharto

text: In 1997, Forbes magazine listed Suharto as the fourth richest person in the world with an individual net worth of $16 billion, despite drawing an annual salary in his last peak year of only $21,000. The Suharto family owned or controlled 3.6 million hectares of prime Indonesian land, an area comparable to all of Belgium, and directly owned or had controlling equity in at least 564 companies, with no Indonesian economic sector untouched. With $100,000 of seed capital, Tommy Suharto got his start in 1984 at age 22. Within ten weeks his Humpuss Group already had twenty subsidiaries, which soon ballooned to sixty. A year later he acquired Perta Oil Marketing, a subsidiary of the state oil company Pertamina, instantly making him a major crude-oil broker and transporter. Perta generated profits of $1 million per month. Most of Indonesia’s toll roads were built and operated by the stateowned firm Jasa Marga, with untold markups and opportunities for skimming and theft for oligarchs as the projects were completed. In 1989, Suharto issued a decree granting his daughter Tutut 75% of profits from all toll roads her group operated jointly with Jasa Marga, driving costs up still further. Bambang positioned his group as a partner of major foreign power companies and forced the state-run power company, PLN, to buy electricity at inflated rates. According to one estimate from the May 24, 1999 cover story in the international issue of Time magazine, the total wealth amassed by the Suharto family over three decades in power was $73.24 billion. Setting aside $9 billion earned from interest on deposits, three-fourths of this wealth was derived from grabbing the country’s oil, gas, and mining resources, or muscling in on state corporations and major government contracts. The entrepreneurial value added from these Suharto family companies was, by all accounts, almost zero.


title: Suharto

text: In early 2004, the German anti-corruption NGO Transparency International released a list of what it believed to be the ten most self-enriching leaders in the previous two decades; in order of amount allegedly stolen in USD, the highest-ranking of these was Suharto and his family who are alleged to have embezzled $15 billion – $35 billion.


title: Suharto

text: By the 1980s, Suharto's grip on power was maintained by the emasculation of civil society, engineered elections, and use of the military's coercive powers. Upon his retirement from the military in June 1976, Suharto undertook a re-organisation of the armed forces that concentrated power away from commanders to the president. In March 1983, he appointed General Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani as head of the armed forces who adopted a hard-line approach on elements who challenged the administration. As a Roman Catholic, he was not a political threat to Suharto. From 1983 to 1985, army squads killed up to 10,000 suspected criminals in response to a spike in the crime rate (see "Petrus Killings"). Suharto's imposition of Pancasila as the sole ideology caused protests from conservative Islamic groups who considered Islamic law to be above all other conceptions.


title: Suharto

text: The Tanjung Priok massacre saw the army kill up to 100 conservative Muslim protesters in September 1984. A retaliatory series of small bombings, including the bombing of Borobudur, led to arrests of hundreds of conservative Islamic activists, including future parliamentary leader AM Fatwa and Abu Bakar Bashir (later leader of Jemaah Islamiyah). Attacks on police by a resurgent Free Aceh Movement in 1989 led to a military operation which killed 2,000 people and ended the insurgency by 1992. In 1984, the Suharto government sought increased control over the press by issuing a law requiring all media to possess a press operating license ("Surat Izin Usaha Penerbitan Pers, SIUPP") which could be revoked at any time by Ministry of Information.


title: Suharto

text: With the end of communism and the Cold War, Suharto's human rights record came under greater international scrutiny, particularly following the 1991 Santa Cruz Massacre in East Timor. Suharto was elected as head of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1992, while Indonesia became a founding member of APEC in 1989 and host to the Bogor APEC Summit in 1994. Domestically, the business dealings of Suharto's family created discontent amongst the military who lost access to power and lucrative rent-seeking opportunities. The March 1988 MPR session, military legislators attempted to pressure Suharto by unsuccessfully seeking to block the nomination of Sudharmono, a Suharto-loyalist, as vice-president. Moerdani's criticism of the Suharto family's corruption saw the president dismiss him from the position of military chief. Suharto proceeded to slowly "de-militarise" his regime; he dissolved the powerful Kopkamtib in September 1988 and ensured key military positions were held by loyalists.


title: Suharto

text: In an attempt to diversify his power base away from the military, Suharto began courting support from Islamic elements. He undertook a much-publicised hajj pilgrimage in 1991, took up the name of Haji Mohammad Suharto, and promoted Islamic values and the careers of Islamic-oriented generals. To win support from the nascent Muslim business community who resented the dominance of Chinese-Indonesian conglomerates, Suharto formed the ICMI (Indonesian Islamic Intellectuals' Association) in November 1990, which was led by his protégé B.J. Habibie, the Minister for Research and Technology since 1978. During this period, race riots against ethnic-Chinese begin to occur quite regularly, beginning with April 1994 riot in Medan. By the 1990s, Suharto's government came to be dominated by civilian politicians such as Habibie, Harmoko, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, and Akbar Tanjung, who owed their position solely to Suharto. As a sign of Habibie's growing clout, when two prominent Indonesian magazines and a tabloid newspaper reported on criticism over Habibie's purchase of almost the entire fleet of the disbanded East German Navy in 1993 (most of the vessels were of scrap-value), the Ministry of Information ordered the offending publications be closed down on 21 June 1994. In 1993, the Purna Bhakti Pertiwi Museum was opened on the initiative of Tien Suharto. It houses and displays Suharto collections including artworks and souvenirs, received from various world leaders and Indonesian people.


title: Suharto

text: In the 1990s, elements within the growing Indonesian middle class created by Suharto's economic development were becoming restless with his autocracy and the corruption of his children, fuelling demands for "Reformasi" (reform) of the almost 30-year-old New Order government. By 1996, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno and chairwoman of the normally compliant PDI, was becoming a opposition figure for this growing discontent. In response, Suharto backed a co-opted faction of PDI led by Suryadi, which removed Megawati from the chair. On 27 July 1996, an attack by soldiers and hired thugs led by Lieutenant-General Sutiyoso on demonstrating Megawati supporters in Jakarta resulted in fatal riots and looting. This incident was followed by the arrest of 200 democracy activists, 23 of whom were kidnapped, and some killed, by army squads led by Suharto's son-in-law, Major-General Prabowo Subianto. In 1995, Suharto released a special 1,54 troy ounce gold coin worth of 850,000 rupiah with his face on one side of the coin in the celebration of 50th anniversary of Indonesian Independence. On 5 October 1997, he awarded himself and generals Sudirman and Abdul Haris Nasution the honorary rank of five-star "Grand General".


title: Suharto

text: Indonesia was the country hardest hit by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. From mid-1997 there were large capital outflows and against the US dollar. Due to poor bank lending practices, many Indonesian companies borrowed cheaper US dollar loans while their income is mainly in Indonesian rupiah. The weakening rupiah spurred panic buying of US dollar by these companies, causing the Indonesian rupiah to drop in value from a pre-crisis level of Rp. 2,600 to a low point in early 1998 of around Rp. 17,000. Consequently, many companies were bankrupted and the economy shrank by 13.7%, leading to sharp increases in unemployment and poverty across the country.


title: Suharto

text: Efforts by the central bank to defend the rupiah proved futile and only drained the country's dollar reserves. In exchange for US$43 billion in liquidity aid, between October 1997 and the following April, Suharto signed three letters of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic reform process. In January 1998, the government was forced to provide emergency liquidity assistance (BLBI), issue blanket guarantees for bank deposits and set-up the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency to take over management of troubled banks in order to prevent the collapse of the financial system. Among the steps taken on IMF recommendation, the government raised an interest rate up to 70% pa in February 1998, which further worsened the contraction of the economy. In December 1997, Suharto did not attend an ASEAN presidents' summit for the first time, which was later revealed to be due to a minor stroke, creating speculation about his health and the immediate future of his presidency. In mid-December, as the crisis swept through Indonesia and an estimated $150 billion of capital was being withdrawn from the country, he appeared at a press conference to re-assert his authority and to urge people to trust the government and the collapsing rupiah.


title: Suharto

text: However, his attempts to re-instil confidence had little effect. Evidence suggested that his family and associates were being spared the most stringent requirements of the IMF reform process, further undermining confidence in the economy and his leadership. The economic meltdown was accompanied by increasing political tension. Anti-Chinese riots occurred in Situbondo (1996), Tasikmalaya (1996), Banjarmasin (1997), and Makassar (1997); violent ethnic clashes broke out between the Dayak and Madurese settlers in Central Kalimantan in 1997. Golkar won the rigged 1997 election, and in March 1998, Suharto was voted unanimously to another five-year term. He nominated his protégé B. J. Habibie as vice president then stacking the cabinet with his own family and business associates, including his eldest daughter Tutut as Minister of Social Affairs. The appointments and the government's unrealistic 1998 budget created further currency instability, rumours and panic led to a run on stores and pushed up prices. The government increased the fuel prices further by 70% in May 1998, which triggered another wave of riots in Medan.


title: Suharto

text: With Suharto increasingly seen as the source of the country's mounting economic and political crises, prominent political figures, including Muslim politician Amien Rais, spoke out against his presidency, and in January 1998 university students began organising nationwide demonstrations. The crisis climaxed while Suharto was on a state visit to Egypt on 12 May 1998, when security forces killed four demonstrators from Jakarta's Trisakti University. Rioting and looting across Jakarta and other cities over the following days destroyed thousands of buildings and killed over 1,000 people. Ethnic Chinese and their businesses were particular targets in the violence. Theories on the origin of the violence include rivalry between military chief General Wiranto and Army Strategic Commander Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, and the suggestion of deliberate provocation by Suharto to divert blame for the crisis to the ethnic-Chinese and discredit the student movement.


title: Suharto

text: On 16 May, tens of thousands of university students demanded Suharto's resignation, and occupied the grounds and roof of the parliament building. Upon Suharto's return to Jakarta, he offered to resign in 2003 and to reshuffle his cabinet. These efforts failed when his political allies deserted him by refusing to join the proposed new cabinet. According to Wiranto, on 18 May, Suharto issued a decree which provided authority to him to take any measures to restore security; however, Wiranto decided not to enforce the decree to prevent conflict with the population. On 21 May 1998, Suharto announced his resignation, upon which vice-president Habibie assumed the presidency in accordance with the constitution. Recently released documents from the United States Department of State indicate that the Clinton Administration sought to maintain close ties with the Indonesian military in the aftermath of Suharto's fall from power.


title: Suharto

text: After resigning from the presidency, Suharto became a recluse in his family's compound in the Menteng area of Jakarta, protected by soldiers and rarely making public appearances. Suharto's family spent much of their time fending off corruption investigations. However, Suharto himself was protected from grave prosecution by politicians who owed their positions to the former president, as indicated in the leaked telephone conversation between President Habibie and attorney-general Andi Muhammad Ghalib in February 1999. In May 1999, "Time Asia" estimated Suharto's family fortune at US$15 billion in cash, shares, corporate assets, real estate, jewellery and fine art. Suharto sued the magazine seeking more than $US 27 billion in damages for libel over the article. On 10 September 2007, Indonesia's Supreme Court awarded Suharto damages against "Time Asia" magazine, ordering it to pay him one trillion rupiah ($128.59 million). The High Court reversed the judgement of an appellate court and Central Jakarta district court (made in 2000 and 2001).


title: Suharto

text: Suharto was placed highest on Transparency International's list of corrupt leaders with alleged misappropriation of between US$15–35 billion during his 32-year presidency. On 29 May 2000, Suharto was placed under house arrest when Indonesian authorities began to investigate the corruption during his presidency. In July 2000, it was announced that he was to be accused of embezzling US$571 million of government donations to one of several foundations under his control and then using the money to finance family investments. However, in September court-appointed doctors announced that he could not stand trial because of his declining health. State prosecutors tried again in 2002, but then doctors cited an unspecified brain disease. On 26 March 2008, a civil court judge acquitted Suharto of corruption but ordered his charitable foundation, Supersemar, to pay US$110 m (£55 m).


title: Suharto

text: In 2002, Suharto's son Tommy was sentenced to 15 years' jail for ordering the killing of a judge (who had previously convicted him of corruption), illegal weapons possession and fleeing justice. In 2006, he was paroled on "conditional release". In 2003, Suharto's half-brother Probosutedjo was tried and convicted for corruption and the loss of $10 million from the Indonesian state. He was sentenced to four years in jail. He later won a reduction of his sentence to two years, initiating a probe by the Corruption Eradication Commission into the alleged scandal of the "judicial mafia" which uncovered offers of $600,000 to various judges. Probosutedjo confessed to the scheme in October 2005, leading to the arrest of his lawyers. His full four-year term was reinstated. After a brief standoff at a hospital, in which he was reportedly protected by a group of police officers, he was arrested on 30 November 2005. On 9 July 2007, Indonesian prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against Suharto, to recover state funds ($440 m or £219 m, which allegedly disappeared from a scholarship fund, and a further $1.1 billion in damages).


title: Suharto

text: After resigning from the presidency, Suharto was hospitalised repeatedly for stroke, heart, and intestinal problems. His declining health hindered attempts to prosecute him as his lawyers successfully claimed that his condition rendered him unfit for trial. Moreover, there was little support within Indonesia for any attempts to prosecute him. In 2006, Attorney General Abdurrahman announced that a team of twenty doctors would be asked to evaluate Suharto's health and fitness for trial. One physician, Brigadier-General Dr Marjo Subiandono, stated his doubts about by noting that "[Suharto] has two permanent cerebral defects." In a later "Financial Times" report, Attorney General Abdurrahman discussed the re-examination, and called it part of a "last opportunity" to prosecute Suharto criminally. Attorney General Abdurrahman left open the possibility of filing suit against the Suharto estate.


title: Suharto

text: On 4 January 2008, Suharto was taken to the Pertamina Central Hospital, Jakarta with complications arising from poor health, swelling of limbs and stomach, and partial renal failure. His health fluctuated for several weeks but progressively worsened with anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart and kidney complications, internal bleeding, fluid on his lungs, and blood in his faeces and urine which caused a haemoglobin drop. On 23 January, Suharto's health worsened further, as a sepsis infection spread through his body. His family consented to the removal of life support machines if his condition did not improve and he died on 27 January at 1:09 pm.


title: Suharto

text: Minutes after his death, then-Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held a news conference declaring Suharto as one of Indonesia's "best sons" and invited the country to give the highest respect and honour to the ex-president. Suharto's body was taken from Jakarta to the Giri Bangun mausoleum complex near the Central Java city of Solo. He was buried alongside his late wife in a state military funeral with full honours, with the Kopassus elite forces and KOSTRAD commandos as the honour guard and pallbearers and Commander of Group II Kopassus Surakarta Lt. Colonel Asep Subarkah. In attendance were President Yudhoyono, who presided over the ceremony, and vice-president, government ministers, and armed forces chiefs of staff. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to see the convoy. Condolences were offered by many regional heads of state. President Yudhoyono that afternoon declared a week of official mourning starting from Suharto's day of death. During this period, all flags of Indonesia were flown at half-mast.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: Star Wars: Visions is an animated anthology series created for the American streaming service Disney+. Produced by Lucasfilm, the series consists of various original stories set in, or inspired by, the "Star Wars" universe.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: The first volume of nine anime short films were produced by seven Japanese animation studios: Kamikaze Douga, Studio Colorido, Geno Studio, Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Production I.G, and Science SARU. The creators at each studio were given free rein to re-envision the ideas of "Star Wars" as they saw fit, while receiving guidance from Lucasfilm's executive team. The volume was released on September 22, 2021, and received positive reviews from critics.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: A second volume featuring shorts from animation studios in Japan, India, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Chile, France, South Africa, and the United States will be released in early 2023.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: "Star Wars: Visions" is a collection of animated short films presented "through the lens of the world's best anime creators" that offers a new, diverse perspective on "Star Wars". Created outside of the constraints of the franchise's traditional canon, the films provide creative freedom to each director and production studio, while maintaining fidelity to the themes and emotional identity of the "Star Wars" saga.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: Development of the "Star Wars: Visions" project began when James Waugh, vice president of franchise content at Lucasfilm, pitched the idea to Kathleen Kennedy at the beginning of 2020. To facilitate the international production, Lucasfilm collaborated with independent producer Justin Leach and his company Qubic Pictures, which helped facilitate the discussions between the US-based executives and Japanese studios; this became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when planned in-person collaborative meetings had to be canceled. Production of the shorts took place in Japan throughout 2020 and 2021.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: On December 10, 2020, it was announced that "Star Wars: Visions" was an anime anthology series of ten short films by different creators set in the "Star Wars" universe. It was previewed by producer Kanako Shirasaki and the executive producers at Anime Expo Lite in July 2021. At the event, it was revealed that the number of episodes had decreased from ten to nine, due to "The Ninth Jedi" originally starting development as two films, but was eventually combined into one film.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: A second season of "Visions" was announced at "Star Wars" Celebration in May 2022, and will include shorts from studios based in Japan, India, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Chile, France, South Africa, South Korea and the United States. Waugh described the second volume as "a celebration of the incredible animation happening all around the globe".


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: "Star Wars: Visions"s stories were not required to adhere to the established "Star Wars" timeline. The story of "The Duel" was specifically billed as "an alternate history pulled from Japanese lore". "Lop and Ochō" is set during the reign of the Galactic Empire between "" and "A New Hope". "The Elder" is set "sometime before" "" while "The Twins" involves "remnants of the Imperial Army" after the events of "". "The Ninth Jedi" explores "what became of the Jedi Knights" after "The Rise of Skywalker"; director Kenji Kamiyama was particularly focused on wanting to use "the original lightsaber sounds" that are known to children throughout the world. For "T0-B1", director Abel Góngora sought to combine visual and narrative elements of the classic trilogy with those of classic anime by drawing parallels between the anime and manga of the 1960s, and the cinema tradition of the late 1970s. In planning her film "Akakiri", director Eunyoung Choi noted that "creating visuals that combined both the fairy tale-style lessons of "Star Wars" with the advanced technology found in this universe... was particularly important."


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: In July 2021, it was revealed that Kevin Penkin would be composing the score for "The Village Bride", and Michiru Ōshima will be composing for "The Twins" and "The Elder", while Yoshiaka Dewa composed the score for "Lop and Ochō" and "Tatooine Rhapsody", Keiji Inai to compose the score for "The Duel", A-bee and Keiichiro Shibuya compose the score for "T0-B1", U-zhaan compose the score for "Akakiri", and Nobuko Toda and Kazuma Jinnouchi will be composing the score for "The Ninth Jedi". Soundtracks for each film were released digitally on October 15, 2021.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: "Star Wars: Visions" was released on September 22, 2021, on Disney+. From September 21 to 27, Disney screened "The Village Bride" along with movies playing at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. By November, the studio had submitted the film for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The second volume of shorts will be released in early 2023.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: According to Whip Media's viewership tracking app TV Time, "Star Wars: Visions" was the 3rd most anticipated new television series of September 2021. According to Whip Media, "Star Wars: Visions" was the 5th most streamed original television series in the United States, during the week of September 26, 2021.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 96% approval rating with an average rating of 8.20/10, based on 50 reviews for the first season. The site's critical consensus reads, "Gorgeously animated and wildly creative, "Visions" is an eclectic, but wholly enjoyable collection of "Star Wars" stories that breathe new life into the galaxy." Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: Angie Han of "The Hollywood Reporter" praised the anthology for "a love of Star Wars that runs so deep it's bound to make new fans of the young and uninitiated, and remind old fans why they fell so hard for this universe in the first place," and highlighted "The Duel" and "T0-B1" as particularly strong installments. Tyler Hersko of "IndieWire" hailed the anthology as "one of, if not "the" best, titles - television, film, or otherwise - to come out of the franchise's era under Disney ownership," calling it "beautifully animated and smartly written" with "phenomenal" action scenes. Mike Hale of "The New York Times" wrote that the individual films "play like auditions for continuing series rather than organic wholes," while calling "The Duel", "T0-B1", "Lop & Ocho", and "Akakiri" the most interesting and exciting films, and noting the "handcrafted beauty" and "visual variety" of an anthology which achieves "both cross-cultural collaboration and mutual homage." Writing for "CNN", Brian Lowry called the shorts "striking" and noted that ""Star Wars: Visions" does indeed present unique and intriguing visions, indicating there's plenty of room to experiment."


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: Jake Kleinman of "Inverse" called "Star Wars: Visions" "a revelation" and "Lucasfilm's best new story since the original trilogy," and highlighted "The Twins" as the project's best film. Writing for "The A.V. Club", Juan Barquin praised the anthology for sparking "a kind of endless wonder" and rekindling "a child-like fascination with "Star Wars"", while highlighting "T0-B1", "The Twins", "The Village Bride", "Lop & Ocho", and "Akakiri" as standouts. Jordan Woods of "The Harvard Crimson" identified "The Ninth Jedi", "Tatooine Rhapsody", and "The Twins" as the highlight segments, and called the project as a whole ""Star Wars" at its best: bold, ambitious, creative, and, most importantly, innovative." Amon Warmann of "Empire" spotlighted "Akakiri", "T0-B1", "The Duel", and "The Ninth Jedi" as the best installments, rating the overall anthology with 4 out of 5 stars, and concluding that "the galaxy far, far away has never looked more stunning in animation, and at its best "Visions" folds core "Star Wars" tenets into compelling stories with characters you instantly want to see more of. Here's hoping this isn't the only season we get."


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: In addition to its reviews upon release, "Star Wars: Visions" was subsequently named one of the best animated projects of 2021 by "Paste Magazine", "TheWrap", "Polygon", Collider, "Gizmodo", Anime News Network, "/Film", Comic Book Resources, and Rotten Tomatoes. The project was heralded as one of the best "Star Wars" titles in a decade or more, as well as what the future of the "Star Wars" franchise should be.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: In March 2021, it was announced that Del Rey Books will publish "", an original novel written by Emma Mieko Candon which builds on the story of "The Duel". It was released on October 12, 2021.


title: Star Wars: Visions

text: In May 2022, it was announced that Marvel Comics will publish a "Visions" comic about the Ronin. The one-shot prequel comic was written and illustrated by Takashi Okazaki, the writer of "The Duel". The issue was published on October 12, 2022. An art book with creator interviews and selected production materials from all nine shorts will be published by Dark Horse Comics on that same month.


title: Ben Falcone

text: Benjamin Scott Falcone (born August 25, 1973) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is married to actress Melissa McCarthy, with whom he co-starred in "God’s Favorite Idiot". He has also had cameos in ""Bridesmaids"", "Identity Thief", "The Heat", "Spy", "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", and "" Nine Perfect Strangers"" all of which starred his wife.


title: Ben Falcone

text: Falcone made his directorial debut in 2014 with "Tammy", which he co-wrote with McCarthy, and he also directed, co-wrote, and produced "The Boss", "Life of the Party", "Superintelligence", and "Thunder Force", all of which starred McCarthy.


title: Ben Falcone

text: Falcone was born in Carbondale, Illinois, the son of Peg and Steve Falcone. He is of Italian, English, German, and Irish descent.


title: Ben Falcone

text: Falcone married his longtime girlfriend, actress Melissa McCarthy, on October 8, 2005. They have two children.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes (originally, postal codes). They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the General Post Office (Royal Mail). A full postcode is known as a "postcode unit" and designates an area with several addresses or a single major delivery point.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: The structure of a postcode is two alphanumeric codes that show, first, the Post Town and, second, a small group of addresses in that post town. The first alphanumeric code (the Outward code or Outcode) has between two and four characters and the second (the Inward Code or Incode) always has three characters. The Outcode indicates the postcode area and postcode district. It consists of one or two letters, followed by one digit, two digits, or one digit and one letter. This is followed by a space and then the Incode which indicates the postcode sector and delivery point (usually a group of around 15 addresses). The incode always has 3 characters, starting with a number (denoting a sector within the district), and ending with two letters (denoting delivery points which are allocated to streets, sides of a street or individual properties). Postcode areas are usually, but not always, named after a major town or city — such as B for Birmingham. A small number are geographic in nature — such as HS for the Outer Hebrides and FY for Fylde (the region around Blackpool).


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: Each postcode area contains a number of post towns which are not themselves alphabetically denoted; however each will generally constitute one or more postcode districts. Example: a sizeable part of southern England is covered by the GU postcode area, named after the town of Guildford. Guildford itself consists of postal districts GU1 and GU2. Nearby Woking, a major commuter town— away—is a post town within the postal district GU22. The central part of the town/city the postcode area is named after will have the number 1 e.g. B1 (Birmingham), LS1 (Leeds), M1 (Manchester). However, other post towns within the area are then either treated alphabetically—particularly in London—e.g. Chingford on the north-eastern edge of London being E4, whereas adjacent Walthamstow to the south being E17–or geographically— e.g. the Outer Hebrides area HS numbering the districts north to south.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: As a general rule, large post towns are numbered from the centre outward such that outlying parts have higher numbered districts. However, the disparate post towns within a postal area can be numbered based on various criteria. The town the postal area is named after excepted, this always being 1. In particular, the centrality of a postcode district within a postcode area cannot be reliably inferred from the postcode alone. For instance, SE1 covers a large part of Central London south of the Thames whereas SE2 covers Abbey Wood at the far end of the Elizabeth Line. See postcode area.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: Postcodes have been adopted for a wide range of purposes in addition to aiding the sorting of mail: for calculating insurance premiums, designating destinations in route planning software and as the lowest level of aggregation in census enumeration. The boundaries of each postcode unit and within these the full address data of currently about 29 million addresses (delivery points) are stored, maintained and periodically updated in the Postcode Address File database.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: The initial system of named postal districts, developed in London and other large cities from 1857, evolved towards the present form: in 1917 London was split into broad numbered subdivisions, and this extended to the other cities in 1934.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: Theoretically, deliveries can reach their destination using the house number (or name if the house has no number) and postcode alone; however, this is against Royal Mail guidelines, which request the use of a full address.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: The London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception (in 1857/8), it was divided into ten postal districts: EC (East Central), WC (West Central), N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. The S and NE sectors were later abolished. In 1917, as a wartime measure to improve efficiency, each postal district was subdivided into sub-districts each identified by a number; the area served directly by the district head office was allocated the number 1; the other numbers were allocated alphabetically by delivery office, e.g. N2 East Finchley delivery office, N3 Finchley delivery office, N4 Finsbury Park delivery office etc. Since then these sub-districts have changed little.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: Following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, and Manchester and Salford into eight numbered districts in 1867/68.


title: Postcodes in the United Kingdom

text: In 1917, Dublin—then still part of the United Kingdom—was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a modified form by An Post, the postal service of the Republic of Ireland. In 1923, Glasgow was divided in a similar way to London, with numbered districts preceded by a letter denoting the compass point (C, W, NW, N, E, S, SW, SE).