Ex-king can do no wrong

Ex-king can do no wrong

Perhaps very few people capable of rational thought believe
what ousted president Soeharto said in his speech broadcast by
the private TPI television station on Sunday night. In his
statement, Soeharto denied allegations that he had a personal
fortune worth trillions of rupiah (hundreds of millions of U.S.
dollars) stashed away both overseas and at home.

He said he did not even have one cent of savings abroad, "let
alone billions of dollars."

But, to the new Attorney General, Army Lt. Gen. Andi Muhammad
Ghalib, Soeharto's denial is the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. Ghalib, who in June vowed to continue with
investigations launched by his predecessor into Soeharto's wealth
and other government corruption, said he trusted Soeharto because
"he is a former president."

We regret to say that we can find no vestiges of logic in
Ghalib's statement. Nowhere on this planet can there be found a
head of state beyond human fallibility. The United States has a
long list of lying presidents, with Bill Clinton only the latest
example.

There is a popular belief that kings can do no wrong because
they are merely figureheads, but since the last century, people
in many Western monarchies have been disappointed by the
wrongdoings of their monarchs. An old adage in Europe goes: "In
all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the
heads of thieves, called kings."

Here in Southeast Asia, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, in a speech delivered several years ago before the Dewan
Rakyat (Parliament), lashed out at the country's sultans for
their thoughtless acts.

Those who observed Soeharto's despotic rule over the last 32
years will need little time to remember how he ceaselessly lied
to this nation. Soeharto was a fantasist -- if not a pathological
liar -- who could not tell the truth from lies. Almost not a
single day went by without him telling Indonesians that he was
strictly implementing the 1945 Constitution at the same time as
he was violating the very first paragraph of it by single-
handedly appointing two thirds of the members of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Since Soeharto styled his rule in the fashion of a Javanese
king, many people might share Ghalib's belief in the
infallibility of his word. But believing that a king can do no
wrong is incompatible with the wind of social change which is now
blowing through Indonesia.

We would only accept words to the effect that Soeharto cannot
tell a lie because he is a former ruler if they were uttered by a
former court jester from his palace. And even then, the joke
would be one of bad taste because the nation, gripped as it is by
a devastating economic crisis, has no time for wisecracks.

Since the statement was made by a senior member of President
B.J. Habibie's administration, one can hazard a guess at just how
dominant this old mentality still is among the ruling elite of
today.

Indonesians can now be assured that the government
investigation into Soeharto's alleged wealth will only turn out
farcical results. The investigation team might even take a route
which leads nowhere and reveals nothing.

The abuse of power by the Soeharto regime was so voluminous
that this country actually needs a Ken Starr-style attorney. It
needs someone who will dare to wage a crusade to uncover the
truth, regardless of the fact that the world's most powerful
president is the prime suspect.