On Soeharto's team

On Soeharto's team

I would like to comment on the letter Soeharto syndrome by
Gandhi Sukardi in the Feb. 22 edition of The Jakarta Post.

He wrote in the letter: "Soeharto's family members, medical
team and lawyers refused to give permission to meet with the
former strongman on the grounds that he was too sick to talk
coherently. An independent team of doctors appointed by the House
Representatives was not allowed to see even a shadow of the
speechless man".

I disagree with the comment that the medical team (needed by
lawyers as the first team that made the first opinion) refused to
give permission because the medical team didn't have any interest
or the authority to hamper activities targeted at Soeharto. The
main duty of this team was to cure Soeharto according to medical
ethics in the treatment of the sick. After the checkup, the team
submitted a sworn statement that Soeharto was sick and thus
incapable of "certain" activities, but this testimonial was not
mandatory for justice to proceed.

The team of doctors appointed by the House of Representatives
was really useless because the only institution that has legal
authority to investigate someone is a prosecutor; thus, only the
medical team appointed by the Attorney General's Office possessed
the legal power. The duty of this second team is based on a
search warrant from the Attorney General's Office; thus it is
really independent and does not need any permission from the
first team, as said by Juan Felix Tampubolon, Soeharto's lawyer,
on the recent Fokus newscast of Indosiar private television
channel.

For the sake of justice, this second team should send the
testimonial/second opinion only to the attorney general as
needed, and only this team is allowed to make a legal decision on
whether Soeharto is capable of facing an investigation.

H.M. HADI S.

Cimahi, West Java