He served as the Speaker of the People's Representative Council from 1997 until 1999, and was a factor in president Suharto's resignation during the widespread student demonstrations which occurred at the end of the New Order.

He was active during the Guided Democracy and New Order regimes, working in a number of different newspapers, including Merdeka, Merdiko, and Harian Mimbar Kita.

Suharto saw Harmoko's request as a betrayal, while Tadjus Sobirin, the former chairman of Golkar's Jakarta branch called Harmoko "Brutus" during a leadership meeting of the party, a reference to Roman senator Marcus Junius Brutus, who assassinated his great-uncle Julius Caesar.

Harmoko died on 4 July 2021 at the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital due to COVID-19, and was buried the following day at Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery.

Harmoko eventually became actively involved in the Surakarta Cultural Association, and attended journalism education there.

The contents of Pos Kota discussed the various aspects of people's lives in the capital city of Jakarta, from politics, social affairs, and crime.

Another distinctive feature of the Pos Kota was the appendix, which contained pictures of urban life which were presented in the form of cartoons, which conveyed Harmoko's social criticisms of people's daily lives.

As chairman of the Golkar DPP, Harmoko succeeded in influencing the public during the 1982 elections, through the Safari Ramadhan program.

Withdrawal of the SIUPP from a publishing company meant it could no longer legally function, and it could also be used to effectively ban individual publications.

[19] Tadjus Sobirin, Golkar's Jakarta chairman in 1998, called Harmoko "Brutus" during a leadership meeting of the party.

[20] Harmoko died on 4 July 2021 at the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital due to COVID-19,[21][22] and was buried the following day at Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery.