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)