Soeharto's lawyer questions TI's motivation
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
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