The Soeharto soap

The Soeharto soap

A revolving door of powerful political figures summoned for
questioning on allegations of corruption, collusion and nepotism
has kept the nation entertained. Former president Soeharto has
been questioned on two occasions, his sons Bambang Trihatmodjo
and Hutomo Mandala Putra several times, and even crony Mohamad
"Bob" Hasan has faced the music. His daughter Siti Hardijanti
Rukmana may be next on the not so merry merry-go-round. The
spectacle of a Who's Who of former movers and shakers called in
to answer summonses is welcome amusement and relief for people
assaulted by one crisis after another.

But a protracted, unsatisfying yarn is about all we can expect
from the public drama played out before us. Like the country's
avidly followed but poorly plotted soaps, the sinetron, no
conclusive ending, happy or otherwise, probably lies store. It is
doubtful whether justice, ostensibly the objective of this whole
exercise, will be served.

While there is a general consensus this country was misruled
for 32 years under Soeharto, the nation appears completely
powerless to punish the very man all and sundry jostle to
condemn. As any soap viewer can attest, there is nothing more
frustrating, and terrifying, than knowing the villain of the plot
is still roaming around free.

The investigation being conducted by Attorney General Andi M.
Ghalib appears to be heading off on tangents but ending nowhere,
perhaps true to the script he has been given. If anything, the
investigation has managed to blur the issue of corruption
entirely, shifting the focus away from Soeharto to the minor
characters of former Cabinet ministers.

The government is approaching the investigation case by case;
the Timor national car project, money administered by charity
foundations under Soeharto and ownership of land are among the
items on the agenda. God knows how many other cases there will
be. Not surprisingly, progress in each of the cases has been
painfully slow. Judging by Soeharto's decision to retain a
veritable army of lawyers, he plans to doggedly fight each suit
brought against him. Stay tuned for drawn-out legal battles,
despite President B.J. Habibie's promise the investigation will
be completed before June.

And the verdict, if it ever comes, will likely disappoint the
public. In a Jan. 2 article in The Jakarta Post, former deputy
chief justice Adi Andojo warned that the criminal code, including
the 1971 corruption law, does not cover abuses of power, the
accusation most often leveled at Soeharto. Adi, an arduous critic
of Soeharto, foresees technical legal difficulties for any court
to prove the former president was guilty of corruption.

The piecemeal legal approach is thus not only frustratingly
prolonged, but almost definitely doomed to fail in upholding
justice. Soeharto's misrule can only be tried in a political
forum, and the right forum for this is the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR), the highest political institution. This approach
is not unprecedented. The Provisional MPR (MPRS) impeached,
rightly or wrongly, Indonesia's first president Sukarno in 1967
for misdeeds committed during his rule. That was enough to
disgrace him and banish him from the political arena. While
impeachment is impossible against a president no longer in
office, the MPR can still condemn Soeharto for any misdeeds he
committed between 1967 and 1998. The Portuguese lawyers
petitioning to extradite Soeharto and try him on crimes against
humanity have the right idea after all.

It would have been too much to expect the MPR to condemn
Soeharto in its Special Session in November. After all, the MPR,
like the government of President B.J. Habibie, is run mostly by
people who owe their positions, if not allegiance, to Soeharto.

This should not prevent the next MPR, which hopefully will be
elected democratically, from making such a move against Soeharto.
Until this happens, the multiple investigations conducted by
Ghalib serve no other purpose but plot ruses to divert the
people. The public, like even the most dedicated soap viewers
when the plot fails to thicken and matters never come to a head,
will tune out unless the villain gets his rightful comeuppance.