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Indonesia May Turn Violent if Suharto Granted Clemency
With additional reporting by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA, Dec. 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Indonesian government is coming increasingly under fire for considering dropping a massive graft case against former President Suharto.
The former Indonesian head-of-state, who ran the country with an iron fist for 32 years, is now in hospital, battling against a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.
Suharto is charged with embezzling $571 million in state funds. His trial was aborted in September last year on the grounds of illness.
Other sources put his wealth at several billion dollars and accused him of having transferred huge sums of money to Switzerland, using offshore banks abroad.
Analysts in Jakarta say the arrest of Tommy Mandala Hutomo Suharto, the youngest playboy son of the ailing General Suharto, may have triggered a series of negotiations between the ruling coalition and the Suharto family.
"Tommy may have given himself up with the idea that his family will be left alone if he serves a jail sentence. There might be no other cases opened against the family in the process." Mohamad Efdy said.
He added that it is not surprising that the ex-president, 80, will remain in Jakarta's Pertamina Hospital, where he was brought by ambulance on Monday, at least until the end of the week.
Doctors have said Suharto's condition is stable but that it may deteriorate anytime, sending his lawyers in a frenzy to renew pressure this week for the case against him to be closed, a position backed last week by the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said President Megawati Sukarnoputri might drop the charges, saying Suharto's condition was so poor that "he would not be able to be produced in court."
Legal expert Abdul Hakim scoffed at the suggestion, warning that it would create a bad precedent for other high-profile cases.
"Suharto is not merely implicated in graft but also faces accusations for human rights abuses during his 32 years in power," Hakim told the
Jakarta Post.
Others have also called for an in-absentia trial to counter any problems posed by Suharto's incapacitated state.
Members of Parliament in Jakarta said they would not find it impossible that Suharto be judged in absentia and that Megawati pardon him eventually.
Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid asserted on Friday he had always supported efforts to give former ruler clemency, say reports.
Wahid, however, said that Suharto should have obtained a court decision on his graft case first, before the government awarded a pardon toward the country's second president.
"The idea [to give Suharto a pardon] is good. From the very beginning, prior to my administration, I always suggested that Pak Harto [as Suharto is fondly called] be given clemency, in whatever form, whether it is abolition, penance or amnesty," Wahid said to Antara news agency.
They said letting Suharto go free might trigger the downfall of Megawati's regime and send students, in particular, into the streets for lengthy and violent demonstrations.
In contrast, political analyst Sujati Jiwandono called for the graft case to be widened instead of abandoned, to include friends and associates or "cronies" who allegedly benefited from Suharto's years in power.
However, this seems highly unlikely since many Ministers or members of Parliament and top officials of the current regime were either associated with Suharto, or benefited greatly from his 32 years in power.
Suharto's health has been in decline since he was forced to give up power in May 1998. He has had at least one stroke, suffered intestinal and kidney complaints and had recurring breathing difficulties. In June, he had a pacemaker fitted to his heart.
People after Suharto's assets
A majority of Indonesians, however, believe that Suharto's deteriorating health should not become an excuse for the authorities to exonerate the ex-general from corruption charges.
The government and the investigators, several observers said in Jakarta, should be encourage to bolster efforts to trace Suharto's enormous wealth and return it to the people.
Critic Arbi Sanit hoped that in tracing Suharto's assets, the authorities would differentiate between the wealth the former president allegedly accumulated illegally during his 32-year tenure and that of his family members.
Sudirman Said, chairman of the Indonesian Society for Transparency (MTI), however, doubted this move, suggesting that the government sit together with Suharto's family to negotiate a deal on a portion of the assets.
"That would be the most reasonable solution. We can't expect both justice and the assets. The current situation has prompted us to choose one or the other," Sudirman told the
Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Following his ouster on May 21, 1998, Suharto was charged with corruption. However, he has never appeared in court, ostensibly due to his decreasing health.
Arbi Sanit also said that even if Suharto dies, his illegitimate fortune must be confiscated after an in-absentia trial.
In an April 1999 cover story, Time magazine reported that Suharto's family had stashed away some $15 billion. The money, the report said, had been invested in real estate and other assets in several countries, from the United Kingdom to New Zealand.
The article also resulted in a lawsuit between Suharto and Time, which was later won by the magazine.
A majority of the 212 million people of Indonesia, most of them living in poverty, do not believe that it is too late for the authorities to trace Suharto's fortune.
In 1999, Suharto declared that he did not have a single cent to his name. Officials suggest that Suharto's wealth may have been transferred to other people's accounts.
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