Soeharto's lawyer questions TI's motivation
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Former president Soeharto has been named as the world's number one corruptor in the last 20 years, but his lawyer questioned Friday the motivation behind the announcement by Transparency International (TI).
"Why was it announced now when Soeharto's eldest daughter was campaigning for a political comeback?" lawyer Mohammad Assegaf asked.
Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardijanti "Tutut" Rukmana is currently campaigning with the Concern for the Nation Functional Party (PKPB), which hopes to nominate her as its candidate in the July 5 presidential election. It will need 3 percent of the legislative vote to be eligible to nominate a presidential candidate.
TI based its calculations of Soeharto's wealth on reports published by Time Asia and Inter Press over the last five years.
Soeharto, 82, has never been put on trial for graft, even though he was charged in a $500 million scam, but his doctors forbade him from attending trials, and the court postponed indefinitely the legal proceedings.
Assegaf insisted that TI's report, which was mostly based on a report by Time Asia magazine -- which suggested that Soeharto had amassed billions of US dollars during his 32 years in power -- was baseless.
"TI's announcement is actually not new. They just quoted data which could not be accounted for," he claimed.
After the magazine story was published, Soeharto filed a suit against Time Asia in a local court, but the judges ruled it was a legitimate piece of journalism and no damages were awarded.
Assegaf dismissed that verdict as well, saying the court's decision was based on the procedure of obtaining the news rather than the content of the news.
However, he said Soeharto was unlikely to sue TI.
"I don't think Soeharto will sue TI as they are based in Berlin. It's far from our jurisdiction," Assegaf said.
The report also placed two former presidents of the Philippines -- Marcos and Joseph Estrada -- on the second and 10th spots respectively.
Marcos allegedly stole between $5 billion and $10 billion, while Estrada absconded with between $78 million and $80 million, the report said.
TI Indonesia chapter secretary-general Emmy Hafild denied suggestions that the announcement was made to coincide with Tutut's election campaigns.
"TI usually announces its reports in March. It's just a good coincidence," Emmy announced during a press conference on the report on Thursday evening.
She said the TI Indonesia chapter wanted the public to be aware of the emergence of the New Order Regime of Soeharto as it still has strong financial support.
There have been reports of PKPB giving away food during campaigns, a gesture that the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) considers a form of money politics.
State leaders Countries Corrupted funds =============================================================== Soeharto Indonesia, 1967-1998 $15b -$35b Ferdinand Marcos The Philippines, 1972-1986 $5b - $10b Mobutu Sese Seko Zaire, 1965-1997 $5b Sani Abacha Nigeria, 1993-1998 $2b - $5b Slobodan Milosevic Serbia 1989-2000 $1b Jean-Claude Duvalier Haiti, 1971-1986 $300m-$800m Alberto Fujimori Peru, 1990-2000 $600m Pavlo Larazenko Ukraine, 1996-1997 $114m-$200m Arnoldo Aleman Nicaragua 1997-2002 $100m Joseph Estrada The Philippines, 1998-2001 $78m-$80m ================================================================