A redundant love
The majority of people seemed lost for words this week after the government's insensitive plan to fork out Rp 26.5 billion (US$1.7 million) on a retirement home for former president Soeharto became public knowledge.
The plan was announced by Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung in the midst of an economic catastrophe. It is worth noting that the minister is President B.J. Habibie's most frequent spokesman.
Political observers and some members of the House of Representatives denounced the decision as inappropriate and said it was unwise to approve frivolous expenditure at a time when the government is facing an unprecedented monetary crisis and people are starving.
This decision must have been felt like a stab in the heart by the 80 million people living under the poverty line and the parents of six million children who have failed to enroll in primary school this year because of the ruinous state of the economy.
The ugly reality is that the government remained unmoved despite the outcry and decided that the show must go on. Akbar said the authorities were aware of the economic crisis, but added "that shouldn't lessen our appreciation of Pak Harto."
We strongly believe that the decision, regardless of its legality, is terribly untimely. Soeharto, who lives in a large bungalow surrounded by his immensely wealthy children in the first class area of Menteng in Central Jakarta, does not need a house at this moment in time. Nor is he in financial trouble because he paid for the construction of the 3,000 square meter mansion, built on a one hectare site near his museum in East Jakarta, all by himself.
Only people with a low capability for rational thought believe that the former president of the most corrupt country in Asia lives only on his Rp 15 million (US$1,000) monthly pension, as he himself has repeatedly claimed.
If the government was concerned that Soeharto had spent his way into trouble by financing the construction of the mansion by himself then that was a most naive presumption because Soeharto declined to accept the offer, as Akbar announced yesterday.
Moreover, Soeharto has not yet filed a law suite against Forbes magazine for repeatedly printing stories accusing him of amassing stakes in about 3,200 Indonesian companies and a family fortune worth $4 billion during the 32 years of his despotic rule. This newfound tolerance is surprising in a man who banned 30 newspapers and magazines when he was in power.
The most likely reason behind the government determination to pay for Soeharto's mansion was not only to demonstrate its sincere appreciation of the former head of state but also because of a superfluous feeling of love held for him by his successor, who once called him his professor of politics.
In the words of former Golkar secretary-general Rachmat Witoelar, granting Soeharto the money shows that the key decision makers in the cabinet are still Soeharto loyalists with no sense of crisis.
So now Indonesians should brace themselves for some more pro- Soeharto policies, for example a sham probe into Soeharto's assets -- which are believed to have been illegally accumulated -- as another token of redundant love.