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.