Experts warn of possible wave of student protests

Experts warn of possible wave of student protests

JAKARTA (JP): Legal experts have warned that students could
return to the streets if the government of President B.J. Habibie
continued stalling the corruption investigations against former
top officials, including ex-president Soeharto.

The government's credibility and reputation are at stake,
Bambang Widjojanto, the chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid
Institute Foundation, and Hendardi, chairman of the Indonesia
Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said on Tuesday.

People would lose confidence in the law-enforcement agencies
if none of the corruption suspects are ever tried, and students
would take to the streets to demand justice, they said.

The major corruption cases that should be given priority are
ones involving Soeharto, former chief of the State Logistics
Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang, and former attorney general Andi M.
Ghalib, they said.

"President Habibie's score sheet would look bad if he failed
to bring these people to court. People would simply stop
believing in him," Bambang said.

Hendardi said slow investigations would damage Habibie's
credibility.

The investigation into Soeharto's wealth gathered momentum
last month after Time magazine suggested that the former
strongman and his family had amassed a fortune of some US$15
billion.

The Time articles led Ghalib, then still in office, and
Minister of Justice Muladi to Switzerland and Austria to speak
with bank officials there. The two men returned empty-handed, and
were told that the banks could consider their request for help
only if an Indonesian court had named Soeharto a suspect.

Beddu Amang's corruption charges were dropped by the South
Jakarta District Court for lack of evidence. He had earlier been
implicated in a land deal involving Soeharto's youngest son,
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, and businessman Ricardo Gelael.

Ghalib was forced to resign from the Attorney General's Office
in the wake of allegations that he had received large sums of
money from businessmen who were being investigated for
corruption.

Ghalib said the transfers were donations by the businessmen
for the Indonesian Wrestling Association, which he chairs.

Domino affect

Bambang admitted that the investigation of these three men
would be difficult because their cases could implicate government
officials still in power.

"(Officials) are protecting the former officials since they
may have been involved in the corruption cases," he said.

Bringing the former officials to the courts, Hendardi said,
would reveal the participation of other people still in office.

"It would have a domino affect. Many government officials
would be implicated," he said.

Hendardi said significant progress could only be expected once
a new and democratically elected government was in place.

But he doubted whether the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which is emerging the winner in this
month's elections, would be serious in bringing Soeharto to court
on charges of corruption.

Bambang said he also had his doubts that PDI Perjuangan would
swiftly bring the corruption cases to court.

PDI-Perjuangan chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri has refused
to join the chorus of condemnation against Soeharto and his
family, saying that she did not wish them to go through what she
had to in the late 1960s.

Megawati is daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno,
who was impeached and disgraced by Soeharto himself.

Bambang warned that it would be unwise for the new elected
government to go against the people's wish to have Soeharto and
other officials tried in court.

"If the party (PDI Perjuangan) does not listen to the people's
demands, I doubt that it can survive for a five-year term," he
said.(jun)