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