Suharto, the former Indonesian strongman who died Sunday at the age of 86, was reviled as the man who brought Indonesia to its knees when his 32-year rule ended in a frenzy of violence, corruption and economic collapse.

Yet in the chaotic years after he left office in May 1998 and retired to his family compound in the leafy streets of Jakarta's diplomatic precinct, most Indonesians have come to view his rule with more nostalgia than anger. Whatever misdeeds his three decades of rule brought, whatever curtailments of human rights they saw, Suharto's rule brought stability and a welcome prosperity to a turbulent and impoverished country.