Does Habibie have the guts to probe Soeharto's wealth?
By Aleksius Jemadu
JAKARTA (JP): The controversy surrounding the investigation into Soeharto's alleged ill-gotten wealth is garnering lots of public attention. Many are cynical on President B.J. Habibie's ability to conduct such an investigation objectively. After all, he and most of his Cabinet members owe gratitude to Soeharto for their career.
Some of them benefited immensely from Soeharto's authoritarian and corrupt regime. Habibie does have the legal authority to bring Soeharto to court but, taking into account the very real presence of some "Soehartoist elements" in his Cabinet and the fact that the President himself was one of the main beneficiaries of Soeharto's regime, does he have sufficient moral authority to clean up all the mess?
More succinctly, how on earth can a "crony" of yesterday claim to be a "judge" of today?
The fact the government failed to summon Soeharto and let him do the dictating -- he deigned to visit the Attorney General's Office when he felt it appropriate -- has led to the understandable suspicion that maneuverings are going on behind the scenes. If this proves true, then the government's credibility will be irreparably shattered and more popular protests against Habibie will ensue.
Why the foot-dragging? When Kim Young-sam became president of South Korea, he had no problem in trying two former presidents, Choon Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, for their crimes.
The difference is that the Korean leader respected the principle of "equality before the law". The government and South Korea people agreed on one thing: former presidents should be treated like other common citizens in the name of legal equality.
In the literature of political philosophy, the principle of equality before the law is an essential pillar of a democratic state. It can be applied to the rules themselves and to the actual practices of legal administrators.
The investigation into Soeharto's wealth falls into the second application. Thus, legal rules should be applied impartially to all people who fall within a given category. The impartiality of the government which adjudicates the rules, however, cannot be easily assumed.
Legal administrators should meet certain criteria and moral qualifications. As Ben and Peters (1973) put it: "we must ensure ... that judges are free from political pressures, by insulating them from the executive and legislature; free from corruption, by training them in professional standards, professionally maintained; free as any human being may be from irrational bias, appointing to the bench of men of wide experience, human sympathies and trained intellect."
There are several important legal and political reasons why an independent and objective investigation into Soeharto's wealth should be immediately conducted. First, such an investigation can serve as a warning to all government officials and future Indonesian leaders that any abuse of power for personal benefit could never escape legal sanction. It would also strengthen Indonesia's legal enforcement in general.
Second, as a young nation, Indonesia needs consistent institutionalization of a tradition of law-governed political behavior.
The mere presence of democratic institutions will not lead to democracy. It is the political behavior of public officials which determines whether a political system is democratic.
Moreover, an institutionalization of law-governed behavior could produce valuable political education for the people.
Last but not least, impartial application of the law could strengthen the credibility of the Indonesian legal system in the eyes of foreign investors.
Indeed, investigation into Soeharto's wealth would be a test case for Habibie's government. If he succeeds with this investigation, the Indonesian people will remember him as a great reformist. If not, he will go down in history as nothing more than a collaborator and extension of a regime that so many people love to hate.
The writer is the head of the School of International Relations at Parahyangan University, Bandung. He is also a researcher at the university's Parahyangan Center for International Studies.