Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was the sixth President of Indonesia. Born on 9 September, 1949, in Pacitan, East Java, he had a military career prior to becoming the first Indonesian President to be elected under the direct presidential elections system in 2004. He is married to Kristiani Herawati, daughter of Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, former RPKAD Commander who presided over the bloody repression of members and sympathisers of the Indonesian Communist Party in Java and Bali. During his term, the 2004 law on the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, due to its provisions on amnesty and compensation. No similar law has been passed to replace this and the TRC has still not come into being.

BOURCHIER, David and HADIZ, Vedi, 2003, Indonesian Society and Politics: A Reader, London and New York: Routledge-Curzon.