House urge quick Soeharto inquiry

House urge quick Soeharto inquiry

JAKARTA (JP): The government must move quickly to investigate
Soeharto's wealth, allegedly stashed in bank accounts abroad, or
face the possibility that it will lose the remainder of its
battered credibility, legislators warned on Monday.

"Get on with the investigation into Soeharto's wealth, or
people will become restless," said Aminuddin Yamin of the Armed
Forces (ABRI) faction in a House of Representatives Commission I
(on security, defense, foreign affairs and information) hearing
with Attorney General Lt. Gen. Andi Muhammad Ghalib.

Ghalib heads a government team charged with the task of
investigating Soeharto's wealth, which many allege was illegally
amassed during his 32 years in power.

Even now, many people doubt the government's seriousness to
investigate Soeharto, Yamin said, adding that some have charged
that the government was dragging its feet on the matter.

Yamin cited opposition figure Amien Rais, who said last week
he would give the government two weeks to prove its zeal in the
Soeharto probe. Amien, who is the chairman of the National
Mandate Party (PAN), threatened to stage massive street protests
if the government failed to meet the deadline.

During the hearing, Ginting Sutradara of the dominant Golkar
faction also pressed the government to quickly address the
country's problem of rampant corruption.

"Besides investigating Soeharto's wealth, the government must
also press all ministers and officials to publicly declare their
wealth," Ginting said.

Legislator Aisyah Aminy of the United Development Party (PPP)
faction, who presided over the hearing, suggested the government
talk with all parties able to provide preliminary data on the
former autocrat's wealth.

Ghalib, representing the government, vowed that the probe
would commence "as soon as possible", but called on the public to
uphold the principle of presumption of innocence.

He stressed that the "clarification" of Soeharto's wealth was
"a legal matter, not a political one".

"Until we have evidence that he (Soeharto) has wealth abroad
(which he has said he does not have), we can't say Soeharto is
'not rightful'," he said.

"I will ask Soeharto to give me an authorization letter (to
check if he has wealth stashed abroad). Later I will use this
letter to travel around the world to check whether he has
accounts. If there is, we'll take it back to buy basic
commodities for the people," he promised.

He even joked that journalists could travel with him, but "at
your own expense", he quipped.

After the hearing, Ghalib was pressed by journalists on when
he would meet Soeharto to follow up with the planned
investigation.

"I will meet with Coordinating Minister for Development
Supervision/State Administrative Reform (Hartarto) to decide it
(when to meet Soeharto)," he briefly said.

At Merdeka Palace, Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung
reiterated the government's seriousness in the matter.

"One thing for sure is that President B.J. Habibie has
assigned Minister Hartarto and Attorney General A.M. Ghalib to
soon meet Soeharto to follow up on what he (Soeharto) had said on
TPI," he told journalists.

On Sept. 6, in a prerecorded account televised by his eldest
daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana's TPI television station,
Soeharto denied allegations that he had a personal fortune worth
trillions of rupiah stashed both overseas and at home.

He said that many people had fueled allegations that he had
US$100 billion overseas and Rp 200 trillion ($18 billion) at
home.

"The fact is, I don't have even one cent of savings abroad,
don't have accounts at foreign banks, don't have deposits abroad
and don't even have any shares in foreign firms, much less
hundreds of billions of dollars, which leads to the question of
where the figures came from."

American finance magazine Forbes, in its July edition,
estimated that Soeharto had a fortune worth $4 billion deposited
overseas.

"But, if somebody has evidence that I have bank accounts in
Switzerland, Hungary or other countries, he or she can contact
the Indonesian embassy to have it transferred to the Indonesian
government to be used to help defuse the economic crisis,"
Soeharto said, adding that he would be ready 24 hours a day to
put his signature on the transfer. (prb/aan)