As the deadline passes<\/p>\n
Five days have passed since the city police announced an
\nultimatum for former president Soeharto's fugitive son, Hutomo
\n\"Tommy\" Mandala Putra, to surrender or face \"stern measures\" for
\nescaping an 18-month jail sentence. The youngest son of the
\nfallen dictator was jailed last year for causing losses to the
\nstate in a Rp 95.4 billion (US$11.2 million) land-exchange deal
\nin 1995 with the State Logistics Agency. He scorned the verdict
\nand in November went into hiding.<\/p>\n
The police subsequently hunted down the outlaw but the manhunt
\nwas only intensified early this week after officers found out
\nthat he was alleged to have been involved in the recent murder of
\nSupreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasta. Syafiuddin was
\none of the judges who rejected Tommy's appeal against the lower
\ncourt's 18-month jail sentence. Moreover, police have also
\nconnected Tommy allegedly with the bomb explosions in various
\nparts of Java lately.<\/p>\n
The seemingly disorganized manhunt included the distribution
\nof what the police said was a photo of him in disguise as his
\nalias \"Ibrahim\", and a search of the houses of his relatives.
\nSince Thursday evening the police also deployed hundreds of
\nsharpshooters to a large number of areas where it was believed
\nthe convict could have been hiding. But until Friday Tommy's
\nwhereabouts remained a great mystery. On the other hand, Tommy's
\nonce high-profile sisters have claimed to be in the dark, just
\nlike the officers. It all sounds like a cruel hoax.<\/p>\n
However, a recent report said the police heard from one of the
\nmurder suspects that last month Tommy celebrated his birthday in
\nthe house of one of his siblings in the area where the Soeharto
\nfamily members live. It was well-attended by his relatives. In
\nthe gathering, police claimed, the accomplice submitted to Tommy
\na chart and an itinerary of the proposed assassination of the
\njudge.<\/p>\n
Tommy's alleged presence at the party shows that the police's
\ninability to find him has become a matter of national shame. When
\nTommy's older sister Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, who is also known
\nas Tutut, went to Jakarta Police Headquarters on Friday to tell
\nofficers that she would hand over her brother for arrest but
\nneeded more time, the police said they could not tolerate any
\nfurther delay. The police seemed convinced that they would be
\nable to catch the outlaw. Or perhaps they were simply \"waiting
\nfor Godot\"?<\/p>\n
The question for the nation now is what made Tommy so fearless
\nin challenging law enforcers? The first reason seemed to be his
\nformer-dictator father's achievement in taking the law into his
\nown hands unopposed, for three decades. Tommy also believed that
\nthe police still had neither the guts nor the ability to arrest
\nhim. Second, president Abdurrahman Wahid had set the worst
\nexample of disrespect for the law by inviting Tommy to a lunch at
\na luxury hotel in Central Jakarta while the convict was seeking
\nclemency from him.<\/p>\n
This shows that the present government must start a nationwide
\ncampaign right now to establish the supremacy of the law and to
\nmake Indonesians a law-abiding people.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/as-the-deadline-passes-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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