Paras Indonesia, May, 15 2006 @ 12:27 am
Godfather Of Corruption Suharto Stays Above The Law
By: Roy Tupai
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cornerstone policy of combating top-level
corruption was badly dented after the Attorney General's Office dropped graft charges
against former dictator Suharto in view of his poor health.
Yudhoyono is Indonesia's sixth president and the fourth since Suharto was forced to
step down amid massive social and economic upheaval in May 1998. He has by far
been the most determined to tackle endemic corruption, but more still needs to be
done, such as cleaning up the crooked judiciary and bureaucracy. Letting Suharto off
the hook may be sending a message to other corrupt officials that graft conducted
while in service to the nation will be tolerated.
Corruption and legal uncertainty are seen as the major impediments to attracting
badly needed new foreign investment, although government officials in recent weeks
have been claiming that reducing labor rights, such as severance pay, is the key to
greater investment and national prosperity.
Fans of Yudhoyono argue that the Suharto case is a one-off, as his administration
has overseen the jailing of numerous prominent figures for corruption, including
Suharto's half-brother Probosutedjo and suspended Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh.
Some observers say it was inevitable that Suharto would never be brought to justice
on account of the nation's culture of deference to authority figures, so the government
should instead try to appease critics by going after Suharto's children and cronies
accused of corruption.
Anti-corruption groups have accused Suharto and his family of amassing anywhere
from $9 billion to $35 billion during his 32 years in power. The former president, who
was only ever charged over the embezzlement of some $600 million from state
charities, has also been accused of responsibility for human rights abuses that left
more than 500,000 people dead.
Suharto was formally declared a corruption suspect in August 2000 but escaped trial
after his lawyers and doctors claimed that a series of strokes had left him irreversibly
brain damaged.
The Attorney General's Office last month announced it would re-examine his health to
see if he could be brought to court, as he had appeared healthy and mentally alert at
occasional family gatherings and reunions with old cronies. But on May 4, Suharto
was hospitalized for intestinal bleeding and later underwent colon surgery. He is still
recovering and underwent a minor follow-up operation on Thursday night to aid his
digestion.
His hospitalization prompted his many sycophants within the political elite to begin
clamoring for the corruption charges to be dropped on humanitarian grounds.
Case Closed, Mostly
Yudhoyono's response to the demands was characteristically indecisive and revealed
cracks within his government. State Secretary Yusril Izha Mahendra on Thursday
announced that a meeting between the president, senior legislators, the attorney
general and Supreme Court chief on late Wednesday had concluded the case against
Suharto should be dropped because of his poor health and service to the nation. He
said the attorney general would soon issue an order declaring the investigation over.
Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng immediately denied that Yudhoyono had
made any decision on the case. Mahendra responded the following day by saying he
knew more about the matter than Mallarangeng. He also presented Yudhoyono with a
draft decree for the "rehabilitation of Suharto's name". He said the decree would also
rehabilitate the reputation of founding president Sukarno, who was overthrown by
Suharto in 1966 and spent his final years under virtual house arrest.
Yudhoyono on Friday declared he would postpone making any decision until "the
appropriate time", claiming he wanted to avert potential conflict between Suharto's
supporters and opponents.
It was standard Yudhoyono talk, indicating that his military advisors might have been
urging him to end the legal process against Suharto, whereas others had no doubt
cautioned that such a move could undermine his high-profile war on corruption and
damage his popularity.
Just hours after Yudhoyono stated he was sitting on the fence and not saying
anything, the buck was passed to Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh to
announce the Suharto case was axed.
He said an independent team of doctors appointed by his office had met with
Suharto's own medical team on Thursday to discuss the prospect of putting him on
trial and "the results are not good". The buck was then passed further, with Saleh
saying the prosecutor in charge of the case, South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office head
Iskamto had on Thursday issued a letter of order canceling the investigation (Surat
Ketetapan Penghentian Penuntutan – SKPP), so the case was "closed by law" due
to the defendant's "permanent illness".
Saleh said the case could be reopened if there are new developments, such as
Suharto being declared fit for trial. "His status is legally free. However, he is not
entirely free. This [SKPP] could be lifted again if there are other reasons. The only
reason at the moment is his health. If the doctors say he's healthy, it [an
investigation] could be put forward again," he was quoted as saying by detikcom
online news portal.
He then tried to explain why Mahendra had broken the news of the decision to drop
the case a day before other officials or any final statement from Yudhoyono. "The
SKPP had actually been finished yesterday [Thursday] and I sent it on to the state
secretary. But I did not yet know whether or not the president had read it. We
eventually confirmed the letter had arrived, so I have just announced it now. That's the
rule."
Saleh said that despite the dropping of the corruption charge, his office was
considering pursuing a civil lawsuit against Suharto in an effort to recover state funds
allegedly embezzled from charities under his control. He said the results of an audit
conducted in 2000 showed that Suharto's alleged embezzlement of seven foundations
had robbed the state of $419 million and Rp1.3 trillion ($149 million).
He denied that Yudhoyono had ordered him to issue the SKPP, saying the Attorney
General's Office has the authority to stop or postpone an investigation, whereas the
president has the final authority to determine whether Suharto should be absolved or
granted amnesty.
Yudhoyono had admitted that Suharto is unlikely to be brought to court and said
justice could be served if his foundations, at the center of the case, were to be taken
over by the state.
One of Suharto's lawyers, O.C. Kaligis, said his client's foundations and assets
cannot be touched or further investigated because the case is now closed.
He expressed gratitude to the government and the Attorney General's Office for
dropping the corruption case "because Suharto has become very feeble in his old age
and is really sick".
Criticism & Disunity
The announcement that Suharto would not be prosecuted came on the eighth
anniversary of the May 12, 1998, shooting by state troops of four students at the end
of a pro-democracy rally at West Jakarta's Trisakti University. The shooting was
followed by organized mass riots that left more than 1,000 people dead and hastened
Suharto's resignation.
In keeping with the national tradition of covering up the truth behind momentous
political events, the government has refused to try senior generals over the Trisakti
killings because parliament has ruled the incident did not constitute a grave violation
of human rights.
Student protesters on Friday attempted to march to Suharto's residence on Jalan
Cendana in Menteng, Central Jakarta, but were held back by police. The students
demanded Suharto be tried and called for justice for the Trisakti victims.
Separately, senior political analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said the
contradictory statements made by Yusril Mahendra and Yudhoyono on the Suharto
case indicated a lack of unity in the government.
"The government is not unified. This is not a coalition government, but a government of
conspiracy. If the government were a coalition, then its senior members would share
the same platforms. But now the platform between SBY and the people around him is
different," he was quoted as saying by detikcom.
He said Vice President Jusuf Kalla had demanded the legal process against Suharto
be stopped and Mahendra later leaked the tentative ruling of the Attorney General's
Office because both had benefited in the past from Suharto's patronage. Mahendra is
Suharto's former speech writer, while Kalla is a successful businessman and
chairman of Golkar Party, Suharto's former political vehicle.
Prominent lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution opted to criticize Yudhoyono, accusing
him of meddling in the judiciary by discussing the Suharto case with Saleh and
Supreme Court chief justice Bagir Manan.
He said Saleh and Manan had behaved unprofessionally by agreeing to discuss a
case that was still ongoing, so both of them should resign for allowing the president to
undermine the judiciary's independence.
"If the president had wanted to intervene in the case, he should have exercised his
right to grant Suharto amnesty or abolish the charges against him," said Buyung.
"But don't have the case stopped like this."
Former People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais said the decision to
stop the case would tarnish Indonesia's international image. He said Suharto should
be tried in absentia and then pardoned if his family hands back much of its wealth to
the state.
Human rights activists agree that at the very least Suharto should have to surrender
ill-gotten wealth to the state and apologize for his wrongdoings.
Suharto's lawyers counter that he already apologized to the nation in his brief
resignation speech of May 21, 1998. "For the people's assistance and support during
my term to rule this Indonesian nation and country, I would like to say thank you and
apologize for any mistakes or shortcomings on my part," he said. In a rare interview
later that year, he denied allegations that he had stashed billions of dollars in
embezzled state funds abroad, saying he did not have a single cent in a foreign
account.
Former student activists Eka Saputra and Nur Kholis on Sunday said Suharto must
be brought to justice for the sake of law enforcement and the nation's history. But
they acknowledged he was likely to go the grave without being tried.
"Suharto must be punished. When he goes to the grave then he will be punished. God
will certainly give him a difficult punishment in the hereafter," said Saputra, adding that
Suharto's children and grandchildren should be brought to court.
Kholis, who now heads the Legal Aid Foundation's chapter in Palembang, South
Sumatra, said that after Suharto dies, authorities may become sufficiently bold to
investigate his corruption cronies.
Thanks Or No Thanks? Still Critical
Mahendra said Suharto expressed gratitude to Yudhoyono upon being informed the
government was planning to drop the corruption case against him. "I told Mr Suharto
about what the government is preparing and he told me to extend his gratitude to
SBY," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara after visiting Suharto at
Pertamina Hospital on Thursday.
Suharto was apparently feeling less chatty when his lawyers informed him of the
same news. "Not a single word came from him because he is still in critical
condition," lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon was quoted as saying by the Financial
Times.
Mahendra acknowledged that Suharto was unable to say much because he remains
weak after surgery. "I just visited Mr Suharto on his sick bed after the operation. He is
still very weak and can speak only a few words in succession and has difficulty
breathing."
Doctors on Sunday said Suharto's health was improving although he was still in a
critical condition and receiving blood transfusions.
Parliament speaker Agung Laksono visited the hospital but said Suharto was
sleeping. "I dared not wake him up. It's better that he rests," he was quoted as saying
by detikcom.
"The doctors his condition was better but still critical. He still has a cough because of
a lung infection," he said, adding it was fitting the legal process be stopped because
Suharto was old and senile and had served the nation well.
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