The abbreviation "Supersemar" is also a play on the name of Semar, the mystic and powerful figure who commonly appears in Javanese mythology including wayang puppet shows.

The Provisional People's Consultative Assembly in its 1966 General Session subsequently elevated the Supersemar into a semi-constitutional resolution irrevocable by Sukarno.

This resolution explicitly stated that the Supersemar would cease to have legal power following "the formation of a People's Consultative Assembly from a general election."

[1] Suharto and his allies defeated the movement and in the rather drawn-out process which extended out for six months or more, Sukarno's formal position as president of the nation was slowly but steadily ebbed away.

The armed forces accused its long-standing rival, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), of being behind the "coup attempt" and an anti-Communist purge ensued.

Sukarno was advised to leave the meeting and did so, flying to the presidential palace in Bogor, 60 km south of Jakarta, by helicopter.

The next day Suharto used the powers thus conferred on him to ban the PKI and, on 18 March, fifteen Sukarno loyalist ministers were arrested.

Take all measures deemed necessary to guarantee security and calm as well as the stability of the progress of the Revolution, as well as to guarantee the personal safety and authority of the leadership of the President/Supreme Commander/Great Leader of the Revolution/holder of the Mandate of the [Provisional People's Consultative Assembly] for the sake of the integrity of the Nation and State of the Republic of Indonesia, and to resolutely implement all the teachings of the Great Leader of the Revolution.

However, in 1998, accusations appeared of an even more direct threat, namely that two members of the presidential guard had seen Gen. M. Jusuf and Gen M. Panggabean, second assistant to the Army minister, pointing their pistols at Sukarno.

When then-Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri ordered the Indonesian National Archives to find it, they reported they only had two copies, one issued by the Army's Information Centre and another by the State Secretary, and that there were significant differences between them.

Even before the fall of Suharto, an official publication commemorating 30 years of Indonesian independence reproduced two different versions of Supersemar.

[15] Saleh planned to make copies of the order and distribute them to loyal members of the palace guard and to Sukarno's young followers.