President Susilo should bring Soeharto to court

President Susilo should bring Soeharto to court

It has been seven years since Soeharto stepped down as
president on May 21, 1998, after 32 years in office. The former
president remains "untouchable" despite allegations of human
rights abuses and corruption during his reign. The Jakarta Post's
Tony Hotland interviewed political scientist Mochtar Pabottingi
about Soeharto. The following is an excerpt of that interview:

Question: What do you think of the recent proposal by several
public figures to grant former president Soeharto amnesty?

Answer: Even now we still have not seen the full damage and
effect of the New Order regime. We still continue to feel and
suffer from the damage, the torture and the ruin of dozens of
years under the leadership of Soeharto.

I always say that it amounts to the betrayal of the ideals of
the Republic, where the five principles of the state ideology
were stomped on throughout the New Order.

Could you elaborate?

One principle is a fair and civilized society. Did such a
thing really exist? With the massacre of thousands of our
brothers in 1965, without any proper trials but only on
accusations (that they were members of the Indonesian Communist
Party), and at the urging of the United States. The New Order
stood for so long with the support of the U.S.

Another principle, a united Indonesia. Really? One of the New
Order's pillars was the military, controlled by Soeharto. The
military always says it helped unite the people, but the facts
show that over the past two decades it has been the military that
has been breaking the nation apart.

Wasn't the military positioned to oversee development
projects? And by development projects, they meant projects
belonging to Soeharto and his cronies, pushed forward without
consulting the People's Consultative Assembly, let alone the
public. The military shot and killed people who tried to fight
for themselves, kidnapped them, made them disappear ... in the
process becoming the root of the disintegration of the nation.

Need one more example? Social justice. History shows that the
economic disparity between the haves and the have-nots grew wider
and wider under the New Order.

All five principles were betrayed by Soeharto's New Order. Now
we want to forgive him? Is that a good lesson for the Republic?
We are not only talking about Soeharto as a person, but also the
Republic ... about us and what he did to the Republic. I cannot
figure out what those people were thinking of (suggesting an
amnesty for Soeharto), and I am really upset. Are we trying to
avoid the truth?

What should the current government do regarding Soeharto and
the legal process surrounding him?

The best thing is to put him back to trial. I think it is a
complete lie that he cannot stand trial. It is a lie that the
doctors who examined him found he was unable to stand trial. How
many times has Soeharto traveled to Nusa Kambangan to see his
favorite son, who is a criminal? How many times have we seen him
walking around? Bring him to court, let him talk ... force him to
talk.

I do not understand why these public figures are saying we
should forget everything. We are talking about what Soeharto did
to the Republic. Did they consider that? It never occurred to
them because they are Soeharto's men. They do not think about the
nation.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono refused to comment when
asked about the possibility of trying Soeharto.

I would suggest to him, with such little chance for a trial,
that the wisest and most realistic thing he could say is that it
is imperative to put Soeharto to trial and find the truth. But
maybe not during the current administration. We may have to wait
a while, the consequence being that Soeharto could pass away
first. But really, that is the least Susilo could say, as a
statesman. But of course, he needs to mean it.

The Attorney General's Office seems to be powerless to take
action because Soeharto's doctors say the former president is too
ill to stand trial.

I tell you, what we have today is far from anything that could
be called a reform era, because today is just an extension of the
New Order. And the institution where you can feel the spirit of
the New Order the strongest is the judiciary. It has never been
an institution for justice, but rather is an institution for
sustaining injustice.

All of the authorities, the branches of the government, simply
do not want to try Soeharto, and that is a big mistake. This is
not something that we can just forget. This is the very
foundation of our nation that Soeharto trampled on, violated and
betrayed.

So you see absolutely no room for amnesty?

You know, even if he should be granted amnesty, he should
first pay compensation to all of the victims of his New Order
regime. Select the victims, pay them and their offspring adequate
compensation, give them a good education, clear their names and
give them back their bruised dignity. The victims of the Tanjung
Priok incident, the Lampung incident ... the victims in Aceh,
Papua, you name it. Countless.

In fact, he could have saved the country in 1998 by staying in
power. If he had wanted to save the country, he could have
gathered together all his corrupt cronies and bailed out
Indonesia from its mounting debts. He and his cronies were
capable of doing that, but it just never occurred to Soeharto's
mind because he was so selfish and ungiving.

If there is an amnesty, it is (first president) Sukarno's name
that should be rehabilitated. His accomplishments were greater
than those of Soeharto. He founded the state ideology, he is the
father of our nation, whose name was tarnished by the New Order
through fabricated history.

I must say that the prospects of Soeharto being put on trial
are small. So I suppose we can all forget about giving him
amnesty. They can grant him amnesty after doing everything I just
said.

You have given all the basic reasons for denying Soeharto an
amnesty. Do you have any more political reasons?

In a very concrete sense, the impunity that continues to
ravage our nation comes with the fact that we are still feeling
the extended arms of the New Order. Over the years, this has
become the pattern by which all cases of gross corruption and
human rights violations are conducted in this wretched and
perpetually betrayed nation, whose symbols and banners continue
to be shamelessly used and exploited.

The well-kept and guarded policy of impunity in the post-
Soeharto era is the very knot at which all cases of gross
corruption and human rights violations have been firmly stuck.