Candra Malik, Solo – The head of the district where former President Suharto and his wife are buried has confirmed the local government will cooperate with the former first family to develop the Suharto cemetery complex into an international tourist destination.
On Sunday, the youngest son of the late president, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto, said he had signed off on the plan and would also develop a hotel in the area.
"I will build a hotel so that visitors do not have difficulty finding accommodation," Tommy said at the Lor In Hotel in Solo, which he owns. "They can stay longer there and not have to go back and forth to Solo because they are staying at our hotel."
Tommy said the new hotel would be managed by one of his companies, PT Hotel Anomsolo Saranatama, and would have affordable room rates.
Rina Iriani, district chief of Karanganyar, Central Java, which is about 30 kilometers east of Solo, said on Monday she got the idea from the memorial at the site where founding President Sukarno is buried in Blitar, East Java.
She said she had discussed the idea with the Suharto family and had received their permission to develop the family mausoleum, known as Astana Giribangun, in Matesih subdistrict.
Suharto, who died in January 2008, ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years, but was credited with bringing significant development and wealth to the country.
His authoritarian New Order regime has also been accused of numerous human rights abuses and corruption on a massive scale. Suharto's wife, Siti Hartinah, better known as Tien Suharto, died in 1996.
Rina told the Jakarta Globe that work was already under way to upgrade roads in the area and to hire staff members to manage the tourists expected to visit the former strongman's grave.
She said visitors to the gravesite currently stayed at hotels in Solo or Tawangmangu, a tourist area at the foot of Mount Lawu, which is about 15 kilometers from Karanganyar.
"The economic potential of the surrounding community will grow as more and more pilgrims go there," Rina said, adding that about 700 pilgrims already visited the cemetery on weekdays and many more on weekends.