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.