Habibie deplored for being reluctant to probe Soeharto

SEMARANG (JP): Two political party leaders expressed concern on Saturday over the reluctance of President B.J. Habibie to seriously investigate the wealth allegedly amassed by former president Soeharto during his 32 years in power.

Edi Sudrajat, chairman of the Justice and Unity Party (PKP), said in a campaign here that Suharto Inc. reports run by Time magazine as its cover story last week were the fault of President Habibie.

"Habibie is slow and not even serious in probing the alleged corruption, collusion and nepotism practices conducted by Soeharto and his cronies," he said.

The Time Asia edition ran a cover story last week on the former Indonesian strongman, suggesting that he and his family had built up a fortune of US$15 billion abroad.

The amount includes $9 billion in funds believed to have been transferred from Switzerland to Austria just days after Soeharto resigned on May 21, 1998.

Soeharto and his lawyers have threatened to launch civil and criminal actions against Time, saying that the articles were libelous.

"It's Soeharto's right to fight the magazine back, but I strongly believe that the investigation carried out by the magazine is right," Edi said.

In Weleri, Central Java, chairman of National Mandate Party (PAN) Amien Rais said: "It's impossible to expect Habibie to investigate the alleged corruption. Habibie is Soeharto's golden child... it's apparent that he will not dare to investigate (the alleged corruption) thoroughly."

Amien told at least 30,000 PAN supporters at the Sambongsari field that if his party won the election, he would thoroughly probe the corruption allegedly committed by Soeharto, his family and his cronies.

If they were obtained illegally during his tenure, the wealth should be confiscated and returned back to the people, who suffered from the country's economic turmoil, he said.

Separately, economist Sri Edi Swasono said in Semarang on Saturday that the Attorney General's Office had to question former governors of the central bank over the alleged wealth of Soeharto.

Edi said that the central bank ex-governors must be able to help locate the whereabouts of Soeharto's alleged wealth abroad in response to the Time's reports.

"The bank's ex-governors -- from Soedradjat Djiwandono, Arifin Siregar, Radius Prawiro to Rahmat Saleh -- used to be Soeharto's subordinates. So it's not difficult for them to explain how and when the first family's funds would have been transferred abroad," Edi told The Jakarta Post after a PKP campaign.

Besides the BI ex-governors, executives from some large state and private banks should also be questioned whether or not there had been massive transfers from Soeharto to his children or his cronies during their tenures, Edi said.

"Technically, there is no difficulty at all to probe the alleged corruption of the former strongman in the country," he said.

"Soeharto has submitted an authorization letter to the Attorney General to find out whether there is any of his wealth abroad. The letter can be used to withdraw the deposited funds," Edi said, adding the Attorney General could use the Time reports as clues. (emf/har)