A damaging ruling

A damaging ruling

The South Jakarta District Court's decision to dismiss the
corruption charges against former president Soeharto on the
grounds that he is too ill to stand trial will have much wider
repercussions that go beyond the US$590 million case brought by
the state prosecutors. The ruling has not only effectively closed
the door on all legal avenues to try the former tyrant for his
past actions, but it could also destroy President Abdurrahman
Wahid's antigraft campaign.

The court decision, ultimately, undermines the credibility of
President Abdurrahman who was elected in October on promises of
returning the rule of law and upholding good governance and clean
government. With his popularity at a very low ebb, the court
decision cannot bode well for the already shaky public confidence
in his ability to govern.

The government's corruption case against Soeharto has been
wrought with controversy from the start. The case brought to
court was weak to begin with. Many people felt that even if
Soeharto was convicted, it would have had little significance as
far as revealing the truth and upholding justice in this country
are concerned -- the main objectives of any court hearing.

In the case brought before the court, Soeharto was being tried
not in his capacity as former president of the republic but as
chairman of seven charitable organizations. The sum involved is
not the billions of dollars he and his family were supposed to
have amassed using or abusing his position as the most powerful
man in the country for 32 years, but a paltry $590 million of
state funds which he has been accused of funneling to companies
owned by his foundations.

From the moment Attorney General Marzuki Darusman reopened the
Soeharto files in December, the government was constantly being
outwitted by Soeharto and his lawyers. The investigation dragged
on as the lawyers contested the government every step of the way
on the way to court. Even when the case was eventually tried in
three hearings, including the one on Thursday, Soeharto never
once set foot in the courtroom. His ailing health, a tool which
the lawyers used effectively to slow down the legal process, was
the decisive factor in the judges' decision to dismiss the case.

The grounds for dismissal -- that he is permanently unfit to
stand trial -- has effectively ruled out future investigations or
trials against Soeharto for other far more serious crimes,
particularly human right abuses which his regime allegedly
perpetrated. If the chief goal of these legal exercises is to
seek the truth and uphold justice, and not exact retribution, the
South Jakarta District Court judges have now killed those hopes
for good. The nation will never learn the truth about many of the
still unexplained events when they were ruled by Soeharto.

The court ruling to dismiss Soeharto's case will also make it
difficult, if not impossible, for the government to prosecute
other corruptors who benefited while he ruled the country. His
cronies and children have always been shielded by his power when
confronted with the question of how they secured lucrative
business contracts and trade privileges. Their popular legal
defense has been to say that those business practices were
perfectly legitimate by the standards of the time. If anyone was
at fault, they claim now, it should be Soeharto or members of the
administrations who made and supervised the rules. Now that he
cannot be tried, these corruptors must feel relieved that they
are off the hook.

President Abdurrahman has made a Soeharto trial the
cornerstone of his much-publicized antigraft campaign. He has
even promised -- prematurely as it now turns out -- that he would
pardon Soeharto the moment he is convicted by the court. To the
President, a Soeharto trial and court conviction would be
symbolic of the return of the rule of law in Indonesia and that
corruptors -- past, present and future -- cannot expect impunity
the way they had become accustomed to under Soeharto.

We leave it to medical and legal experts to decide whether the
South Jakarta District Court was right to dismiss the corruption
case against Soeharto. But rightly or wrongly, the decision has
caused untold irreparable damage to the nation's quest for truth
and justice, to the nation's struggle to wipe out corruption, and
most of all, to the credibility and public standing of the
government of President Abdurrahman Wahid.