Revolution fund does exist: Suhardiman

JAKARTA (JP): Deputy chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council Suhardiman reiterated his belief yesterday that the multi-billion dollar revolution fund does exist.

"What we need to do now is to find out its whereabouts and how much is remaining," said the aging politician who first raised the issue in the 1980s.

Suhardiman said it is possible that the fund was spent by either the Old Order government under president Sukarno, who raised the disputed fund, or by the current New Order government.

"The government must publicly announce the results of the (ongoing) investigation by the Attorney General's Office," he said.

The fund was supposedly amassed by President Sukarno through special taxes on various enterprises and was intended to finance some of the government's war efforts in the 1960s, including the campaign to wrestle Irian Jaya from Dutch hands and the "confrontation" against Malaysia.

The debate over the existence of the fund was resumed at the end of last month by Suhardiman, who is also chief of Soksi, a military-sponsored labor organization which helped found the Golkar party to counter the growing influence of the communists in 1964.

In the 1980s, the government established an investigation team called Tim Operasi Teladan to track the existence of the fund.

In 1987, the government, through Minister/State Secretary Sudharmono, publicly conceded that "it is hard to track the funds down but the government will keep trying."

Sudharmono, who is also former vice president, concluded last week the fund did not exist.

He recalled that President Soeharto, in the early years of his presidency, set up a special team to try to locate all state funds abroad, including the revolution fund. The search was fruitless, he said.

The controversy over the fund has resurfaced along with the imminent release of Soebandrio, a former deputy prime minister who has been imprisoned since 1966 for his role in the 1965 coup attempt blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party.

Soebandrio, who has been granted clemency and will be released from life imprisonment after Aug. 15, is believed to be the only person who knows the whereabouts of the fund -- if it exists at all.

Suhardiman was confident that the government's latest attempt to explore the revolution fund would be successful.

"The government is trying a new approach in tracking the revolution fund," he said.

He said that instead of solely questioning Soebandrio, the second investigation also focuses on verification with other people who may have information.

"The first investigation in 1985 only questioned Soebandrio," he said.

He also said that current investigation is being conducted by solely by the Attorney General's Office, which helps ease the investigation procedures and coordination with other related institutions. The first investigation included many institutions.

Suhardiman claims that Soebandrio has always tried to exchange his freedom, through the President's grant of clemency, with his promise of full cooperation with the government in recovering the fund.

Suhardiman added, however, that it was not the reason why the President eventually granted Soebandrio clemency.

"He was freed for humanitarian reasons," he said.

Government officials earlier denied that Soebandrio's release was a result of a deal.

Suhardiman also claims to have supporting documents mentioning the fund's whereabouts.

"I have two copies of Soebandrio's proposals to the government, mentioning the amount and the places the fund is kept," he said.

He said Soebandrio claimed that US$450 million of the fund is kept in several Swiss banks, about 250 million pound sterling kept in gold bars in an English banks, and about 25.5 million Dutch guilder kept in a bank in Amsterdam.

He said the banks in Switzerland have signaled that only Soebandrio was able to withdraw the money. (imn)