Criminal issues pile up

Criminal issues pile up

I have not troubled your columns for the past three years,
since Soeharto was toppled, although there have been a hundred
"sensitive" issues on which I would have liked to comment upon.
However, as an expatriate guest in your country for the past 20
years or so, I deemed it wiser to remain silent and to let your
prolific, regular Indonesian contributors express their opinions
on the country's unhappy socio-economic situation and the
shortcomings of the President, most of which I agree with.

Now, however, perhaps I can break my silence and speak of what
I believe are non-controversial matters: the Attorney General's
Office and the Police. I think that it is universally agreed by
the thinking public that they do a poor job. The former is
forever summoning people (e.g. Mbak. Tutut, the eldest daughter
of former president Soeharto) for lengthy questioning and then,
despite their obvious criminality, releases them into obscurity.
The guilty go unpunished. Why? I think we all have our own ideas
as to why.

What about retired General Wiranto? As head of the Indonesian
military at the time, he clearly knew of the plans for genocide
and mayhem which followed East Timor's overwhelming vote for
independence. Preparing, training and arming the militia to do
their dirty work was a major undertaking by the Army, and if the
Army's boss did not know about it, he had no right to be
commander in chief of the military (under the then president B.J.
Habibie, of course, whom the military told to offer the East
Timorese the choice - autonomy or independence). Where does he
stand now?

The list is endless. And now the police. Whatever happened to
Tommy? We haven't heard a word about him and the police search
for him, for some time now. Have the police just given up the
chase and admitted that he has outwitted them? Is he now laughing
his head off in some safe refuge, under an assumed name and
enjoying his ill-gotten billions of dollars?

It would be nice to know the truth. Meanwhile, what of his
wife, who has been "grilled", but continues to live in luxury.

Finally, what of Soeharto himself? The world and his wife
knows that he sequestered billions of dollars, yet his trial
hinges on a fleabite of about US$571,000. And what does he do?

He pleads sick, which is confirmed by his own medical team and
a so-called team of "independent experts". The last straw is the
new justice and legislation minister Lopa's announcement that
Soeharto will not be brought to trial until he is fit. Well
Soeharto is no fool - he can go on feigning sickness till he
dies. And what will happen to his hidden wealth then?

It's all very depressing.

JAMES RICHARDS

Jakarta