Soeharto warns Habibie<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Former president Soeharto's lawyer Yohanes Yacob
\nwarned President B.J.Habibie on Saturday that if the
\ninvestigation of his client's wealth resulted in court
\nproceedings there would be a devastating backlash against the
\nwhole government.<\/p>\n
"If Soeharto does go to court, it could drag down the
\ngovernment, bringing senior incumbent and former officials -- as
\nwell as all the cronies suspected of accruing ill-gotten wealth
\n-- into messy litigation," Yacob said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
The trial process, if allowed to proceed, would be messy,
\ntime-consuming and arduous, something the nation could not afford
\nat a time when numerous people were plunging into absolute
\npoverty and millions of workers were being fired, the statement
\nadded.<\/p>\n
Yacob's warning comes at a time when students across the
\ncountry are staging almost daily demonstrations demanding
\nSoeharto's trial for alleged economic and political crimes.<\/p>\n
Habibie's plan to set up an independent team to investigate
\nSoeharto does not seem to be proving effective to assuage
\nstudents' protests, particularly as provincial prosecutors are
\nslowly uncovering the enormity of the wealth accumulated by
\nSoeharto and his family.<\/p>\n
Many of the most recent discoveries have been of millions of
\nhectares of land in almost all of the country's 27 provinces.<\/p>\n
And Soeharto's move last week to cede control of seven
\nfoundations holding combined assets of more than Rp 4 trillion
\n(US$530 million) to the government also did little to calm the
\nnationwide student demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Yacob warned in his four-point statement that the demands of
\nseveral groups for Soeharto to be tried was not the only item on
\ntheir political agenda.<\/p>\n
"We remind the Habibie administration that their next target
\nwill be to abolish the Armed Forces' sociopolitical role and to
\ndismiss all those seen as supporters of the status quo," he said.<\/p>\n
At the start of the statement, Yacob expressed full support
\nfor the government's stance and the decree approved by the recent
\nSpecial Session of the People's Consultative Assembly that calls
\nfor the gradual reduction of the military's sociopolitical role.<\/p>\n
"The military's sociopolitical role has been so deeply rooted
\nin all aspects of the nation's life that it cannot be stopped
\noutright without causing devastating distortions in the life of
\nboth the nation and the state," the statement said.<\/p>\n
The statement also appealed to the public to stop condemning
\nSoeharto and to allow the legal process take its course.<\/p>\n
Yacob told the private Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia
\n(RCTI) television station on Saturday that Soeharto was ready to
\nbe tried as a suspect.<\/p>\n
But he totally rejected Habibie's plan to set up an
\nindependent team to assist the Attorney General's Office and
\nNational Police in the investigation of Soeharto.<\/p>\n
"If the team is set up and comprises public figures, then the
\nAttorney General's Office and National Police should be
\ndissolved," Yacob told RCTI, as quoted by Antara.<\/p>\n
Yacob conceded that Soeharto told him not to respond to
\nallegations against the former president regarding the latter's
\nwealth.<\/p>\n
"He told me 'Let it be. One day we will know who is right and
\nwho is wrong'," Yacob added.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib, who has been under
\npublic pressure to act more firmly and speedily to prosecute
\nSoeharto, on Saturday again asked for patience, pledging that
\nSoeharto would soon be interrogated.<\/p>\n
"There is by no means any intention on the part of the
\ngovernment to delay the investigation of Soeharto, his family and
\ncronies," Ghalib told reporters in Ujungpandang.<\/p>\n
Ghalib regretted that people's demands had focused almost
\nentirely on Soeharto.<\/p>\n
"It has been forgotten that what my office's anticorruption
\ninvestigation has achieved over the past five months is six times
\nas much as that achieved throughout last year," he was quoted by
\nAntara as saying.<\/p>\n
The Consortium for National Law Reform said in Jakarta on
\nSaturday that Habibie's move to set up an independent team to
\nprobe Soeharto would only stir up endless debates over its
\nmembership, thereby further prolonging the actual investigation.<\/p>\n
"MPR Decree No.XI\/1998 on the eradication of corruption,
\ncollusion and nepotism does not require the formation of an
\nindependent team. The ruling instead calls for the establishment
\nof a special institution whose membership consists of government
\nofficials and public figures," the consortium said in a statement
\nsigned by its secretary, Dadang Trisasongko.<\/p>\n
What was urgently needed now was for the Habibie
\nadministration to act firmly to use the full force of the law
\nagainst Soeharto, the statement added. (vin)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/soeharto-warns-habibie-1447893297",
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