Soeharto's plea

Soeharto's plea

As could have been expected, former president Soeharto's call
to the government and the National Commission on Human Rights to
protect him against slanderous and humiliating remarks made by
members of the public proved to be counterproductive. Instead of
comfort, what Soeharto brought upon himself by making his plea,
presented last week through his lawyer Johannes Yacob, was an
avalanche of reactions from the public, none of which could have
soothed the ex-president's ruffled feathers.

Not that Indonesians are asking that Soeharto be denied his
legal rights as a citizen of the republic. On the contrary, all
but the most fanatically anti-Soehartoists among Indonesians --
from his former allies in government down to his most outspoken
and persistent political opponents such as Amien Rais and
Megawati Soekarnoputri -- concede that the ex-president must be
assured his rights as guaranteed under the Constitution, which
affirms the principle of equality before the law.

In fact, long before the present public furor over Soeharto's
legal rights burst, Megawati Soekarnoputri -- the eldest daughter
of Indonesia's ousted founding president Sukarno and surely one
public figure who one could well consider justified for harboring
grudges -- called on the public to spare Soeharto the same pain
that her father and his family had to endure during the recently
fallen president's New Order regime.

The point is that to all too many Indonesians, Soeharto's plea
for protection against defamatory remarks and that the
authorities "take the necessary action" to ensure that he be left
in peace sounds inordinate, if not downright arrogant.

"The Cendana Consultancy Team has noted that President B.J.
Habibie, the Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces
Commander Gen. Wiranto and several public figures have told the
public to stop slandering Pak Harto, but such remarks have
continued," Soeharto's lawyer's statement said, while asking that
President Habibie and the National Commission on Human Rights
immediately take the necessary action to deal with the problem.

While conceding that Soeharto's legal rights must be
protected, almost all Indonesians who have publicly reacted to
Soeharto's lawyer's statement have suggested that an open legal
investigation into the alleged wrongdoings of the former
president would be the best way to settle the issue. To be fair
and effective, however, most propose that such a legal
investigation involve not only Soeharto, but also members of his
family and former associates who could have unlawfully benefited
from Soeharto's past actions. As for the allegations of
defamation and slander against the former president, most
Indonesians propose that Soeharto file suit against those he
considers guilty -- a suggestion Yacob seems to have dismissed,
at least for the moment.

As for the Indonesian public at large, the derogatory remarks
that are frequently being made in various quarters are no more
than candid reflections of the people's feelings about the newly
defunct New Order regime. The power arrogance and the injustices
that were committed under the New Order regime are still hard to
erase from the minds of most ordinary Indonesians.

Former president Soeharto himself not too long ago advised one
of his ministers, who complained that he was being publicly
accused of certain wrongdoings, to do some introspection to see
if there wasn't some truth in the accusations. Perhaps it would
be good for the ex-president to take his own advice and ponder
whether the time hasn't come for him to reflect on his own steps
taken in the past.