Raising funds for Golkar?

By helping out Dadang Sukandar and Winfried Simatupang -- two Golkar functionaries -- to return Rp 32.5 billion to the state of Indonesia, Akbar Tandjung's supporters are simply acknowledging that the Rp 40 billion was clearly misused. Habibie said that he ordered the funds from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to serve the goal of poverty alleviation in some areas of Indonesia in 1999.

Instead, it was used by well-known Golkar officials to support their election campaign in 1999. It is difficult to believe -- even for uneducated Indonesians -- that Habibie did not know about this as Golkar leader.

That misused money helped Golkar to promote itself and so get a 20 percent share in the presidential election, supposedly to benefit the candidacy of Habibie. Certainly, should the rules allow it, the general elections committee should conclude that Golkar did not act properly during these elections and thus could certainly be excluded from campaigning again, and Golkar legislators could maybe be expelled from the legislative bodies.

In any case, the return of the money does not mean that the main guilty parties' leaders can be freed. The misuse of funds is still there and the responsible persons must be punished. If not, justice cannot be said to have been done in Indonesia today. No change at all then with Soeharto's era, except that the hypocrisy is much greater today.

YVAN MAGAIN

Tubize, Belgium