Soeharto is no Robin Hood

Soeharto is no Robin Hood

From Rakyat Merdeka

Responding to the acting attorney general's decision to stop
the year-long corruption investigation into former president
Soeharto for lack of evidence, I would like to make the following
comments:

First, the decision strangely assumes that Soeharto was
apparently a Robin Hood who plundered the state's riches for the
sake of fulfilling his holy mission to help the country's poor
and abandoned people. The reality is that the abuse of power
committed by Soeharto has not benefited anyone except his own
family, which factually possesses an abundance of wealth. It is
clear that Soeharto was no Robin Hood representing the poor
people's voice against the greedy and suppressive power because
he himself was the personification of that power.

Second, for whatever reason, the practice of power abuse
carries the consequence of legal accountability. It cannot be
avoided by the objective in view. Each public decision taken by a
president must be subject to the principle of public
accountability. In the interest of the institutionalization of
democracy, we must not tolerate the practice of presidential
power conducted by his own will and method, which totally
neglects the principles of good governance and the right
regulations pertaining to form of government.

Third, the decision to free Soeharto gives a valid basis for
the accusation by the United Nations and the international
community that the Indonesian legal system has intrinsically no
credibility and capacity to accommodate feelings of justice. On
the contrary, it has only become one link in the chain of
impunity. In relation to the formation of an International
Commission of Inquiry by the UN in the East Timor case, the
decision has wiped out the whole basis for the firm belief of the
National Commission on Human Rights that Indonesia's legal system
is capable of bringing every criminal to court.

HENDARDI

Chairman of the

Indonesian Legal Aid Association

Jakarta