Mega vows to put Soeharto on trial
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta
Incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri will bring former president Soeharto to court if she is reelected president, her campaign legal coordinator says.
"We will make sure the case will be resolved. (A trial) would be possible if the current Attorney General (MA Rachman) is replaced by someone outside the institution," Trimedya Panjaitan told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
He said Megawati and running mate Hasyim Muzadi, the leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama, would push the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to recheck Soeharto's health with an independent team.
Soeharto is 83 years old and efforts to bring him to court on corruption charges have failed since he lost power in 1998. Doctors have said the former president was too frail to stand trial.
Trimedya said the first thing Megawati would do would be to replace Rachman. Megawati was already considering several candidates for the post but Trimedya refused to mention names.
He did not say why Megawati had not taken Soeharto to trial in her three years as president.
The Soeharto pledge came as Trimedya, a noted lawyer, announced Megawati's legal manifesto.
If elected, Megawati and Hasyim would move to ensure legal order and legal certainty to win the public's trust, the manifesto said.
By working to uphold the rule of law, they aimed to create a more secure, corruption-free business environment.
The manifesto outlined a general vision to create a "just, clean and democratic Indonesia". The main steps to achieve these goals were integrating the legal system and "enhancing the personnel professionalism" of law enforcers.
Upon winning the presidency, Megawati would integrate the "four pillars" of the legal system to boost coordination and encourage the supremacy of law, Trimedya said.
"Police, prosecutors, lawyers and judges should have a similar understanding of how to handle a case. We don't want to see a case floating back and forth from the police to the prosecutor's office any more," he said.
In the Rp 1.7 trillion BNI corruption case, the prosecutor's office has continued to reject the case file although the police have submitted it five times.
"We want to resolve 10 to 20 high profile cases, especially corruption cases, during the first 100 days of Megawati's government," Trimedya said.
During the same period, Megawati would restructure the police and the Attorney General's Office. Trimedya said judges and police could be retrenched to improve "the professionalism" of law enforcers.
The Megawati government would also speed up the modernization of the criminal codes, he said.
"We inherited the criminal codes from the Dutch colonial government hundreds of years ago. It is time for us to create our own laws that suit the current circumstances. Later, we will also modify civil law. I think this will be a two-year objective," Trimedya said.
On human rights issues, a Megawati government would continue to endeavor to bring all those charged with abuses to court, he said. Trimedya acknowledged the AGO had been slow in bringing to justice those responsible for the 1984 Tandjung Priok massacre, the July 1996 shootings and the May 1998 riots.