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