The candidate and the trump card

The candidate and the trump card

A recent issue of Tempo conjectured that Tommy Soeharto has a
"trump card", that is, some move he can make that would supercede
any move the government might make as it tries to subject him to
the court's authority. Tempo speculates that this trump card may
be a recording of the now infamous Hotel Borobudur meeting
between Tommy and President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid. I would
like to suggest a second trump card that Tommy may have: Mr.
Muladi as chief justice. Muladi served as Soeharto's last justice
minister. Even after Soeharto's downfall, Mr. Muladi did nothing
in furtherance of action against Soeharto, or those who kidnapped
the student protesters in 1998, or those who perpetrated the May
1998 rapes and violence, or those police who killed the student
demonstrators, or against corruption.

He took no action on the case of Mr. Andi Ghalib and his Rp 9
billion mystery deposit. He reneged on his ministry's promise
that a former corrupt immigration official in Medan would be
disciplined if proof were given of his corruption. He didn't pay
his taxes. What more does a candidate have to not do before
legislators move beyond the fit-and-proper charade and declare
that this candidate simply does not have the ethical sensitivity
and moral courage required to step into what is arguably the
second most important position in the government?

The whole country surely remembers Mr. Muladi's pompous
threat: for him it's either top billing or nothing; he would
resign from the Supreme Court rather than serve in a lesser
position. Is this the demeanor of a man with a love of public
service and dedication to the pursuit of justice? Mr. Muladi has
pursued this pending honor shamelessly -- through new interviews,
TV appearances, and round table discussions.

If Muladi's public actions are so lacking in dignity, we can
only guess what his backroom activities with legislators might
have been like. His raw ambition seems to blind him to the
excesses of his self-promotion. The last thing Indonesia needs as
it struggles toward reform is a chief justice propelled so
single-mindedly by self-interest.

Muladi, a former law professor, is no doubt knowledgeable
about the law. He is a known public figure. He has the support of
Akbar Tanjung, Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) and
the functional group (Golkar). These are not enough to qualify
him for the position of chief justice.

If the DPR relies on these grounds as the basis for its
nomination, it will have abdicated one of its gravest duties: to
recommend worthy, qualified (chief justice) candidates to the
President. Indonesia deserves more from its DPR, and much more in
its next chief justice. The importance of the role of chief
justice at this time in Indonesia's history cannot be
underestimated. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-
Perjuangan), at least, understands that the position calls for
the quality of "nobility"; this is not a word usually used to
describe Muladi.

In months to come Tommy Soeharto, his father and siblings, and
a parade of other suspects will find themselves before one court
or another -- or so we hope. From what we have already seen, they
are likely to resist justice aggressively, probably to the
Supreme Court level. How ethical and aggressive would a Muladi-
led Supreme Court be in upholding legal principles? How
independent would Muladi be when dealing with Soeharto and his
cronies and lackeys (of which he was one), if as a post-Soeharto
justice minister he was not? Will he fear exposure of his own
lapses from probity by those whose cases he judges, and be
tempted to soft-pedal his judicial responses? The next time Tommy
or another Soeharto or the cronies come within the purview of the
Supreme Court, will Muladi be their trump card?

DONNA K. WOODWARD

Medan, North Sumatra