Critics oppose amnesty plan for Soeharto
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As Soeharto left hospital on Wednesday after seven days of treatment for intestinal bleeding, the government has been urged to bring the former dictator to justice rather than granting him a possible amnesty for the alleged abuses he committed during his 32-year rule.
"Well, that's a difficult question to answer," noted sociologist Frans Magnis-Suseno said on Wednesday when asked to comment on what the government should do to deal with the unresolved corruption cases against the ailing 83-year old former president.
He said investigations into Soeharto's crimes must not stop, although the results should take into account the achievements he made when ruling the country for 32 years until 1998.
"If there is graft case proven against him, he must return the ill-gotten money and then it can be forgiven and not be sent to prison," Magnis told The Jakarta Post.
He said the Soeharto cases should be handled specifically because he is a former president who had rendered service to the nation.
According to Magnis, a pardon should be offered only in the event that Soeharto is found guilty of criminal acts.
However, he stressed that the granting of amnesty should not be done as a "habit" for common criminals.
With regard to human rights violations during Soeharto's regime, legal decisions should refer to the aspirations of victims, Magnis said.
A similar comment was made by Muslim scholar Komaruddin Hidayat. He said that if the government offered amnesty for Soeharto, it should involve the public in making such a decision.
"If he (Soeharto) is forgiven, it must be followed with concrete steps from the government to combat corruption consistently," Komaruddin said.
Otherwise, the government would lose its credibility in its national antigraft drive, he added.
He said that if law enforcers could not take Soeharto to court for health concerns, then "why don't we choose forgiveness" for the former dictator.
That would be realistic, he added.
Komaruddin claimed that negative public sentiment against Soeharto was apparently decreasing, while on the other hand "humanitarian emotion" was taking side with the ailing former president.
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid had once proposed that Soeharto be forgiven on the condition that he returned the money he embezzled to the state.
Ali Sadikin, formerly one of Soeharto's staunchest critics who visited him at his hospital bed earlier this week, said the ex- strongman should be tried to uphold justice, but then immediately forgiven.
Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said there was no need to grant an amnesty for Soeharto.
"If nothing is filed against him, it means there is also no case," Kalla exclaimed after visiting Soeharto at the hospital on Wednesday, accompanied by chief economic minister Aburizal Bakrie and Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris.
Former House speaker Akbar Tandjung, who was also among Wednesday's visitors at Soeharto's hospital bed, declined to comment on amnesty calls for the former leader.
However, Akbar said that someone who had rendered service to the nation and the state should be able to live in peace in their old age.
Soeharto escaped trial for his alleged past crimes after doctors offered medical evidence stating he was unfit to stand trial as he could no longer hold or follow normal conversations.
Soeharto left Pertamina Hospital on Wednesday, where he had been taken last Thursday. He was wheeled out of the hospital at around 4.40 p.m., accompanied by his oldest daughter Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana.
A team of Soeharto's doctors said the bleeding had stopped and his red blood cell count was rising, but his heart and lungs required continuous monitoring.
Pertamina Hospital director Sutji Astuti Maryono said the decision to discharge Soeharto was at his own request.