Tommy: Hopes and opportunities

Tommy: Hopes and opportunities

The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore

The skepticism that has greeted the arrest on Wednesday of
Indonesia's most-wanted fugitive, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra,
after a year-long hunt, shows that Indonesia has a long way to go
before it breaks free of its past.

In that past, powerful people enjoyed virtual immunity from
the law, and the 39-year-old son of former president Soeharto was
certainly among the most powerful of those people. He fled last
year after being sentenced to 18 months' jail over a graft
charge, which was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Some
Indonesians see his arrest this week as a staged attempt to
improve the stock of the police force, which had been criticized
for repeated failures to locate him.

The police say his capture was genuine. They can be given the
benefit of the doubt. However, it was astonishing that Jakarta
Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb should have thought it
fitting to embrace the prisoner and smile and laugh at their
meeting.

Skeptical Indonesians do not think that Tommy's belated
capture will lead to his facing trial on charges of murder,
weapons possession, bombing and fleeing from the law. A
legislator remarked cynically that the arrest was merely his
window for re-entering society as a free person.

Should that happen, it would be a sad day for Indonesia. Not
only is the rule of law necessary to sustain a people's faith in
the political system, but it also sustains the faith of foreign
investors and others in a country's economic system. Indonesian
political leaders recognize this connection, with ministers
saying that the arrest proves that the country is serious about
reforming its justice system.

What remains is for law-enforcers to make certain that the law
takes its course. It is significant that the Attorney-General's
Office has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to annul its
decision overturning Tommy's verdict, arguing that it was
unlawful because he was absent when the ruling was made. The
point is not whether this particular argument is correct or not.
That is for the court to decide.

The law must take its course without giving the public any
reason to believe that powerful people, working behind the
scenes, can use their influence to block it. Tommy is suspected
of being involved in several cases, including illegal arms
possession and the murder of a top judge.

Suspicions as serious as these deserve to be pursued with the
full vigor of the law. There should be no scope for people to be
cynical about any aspect of the investigations and the steps that
are taken as a result of them.

Now, the popular interest in Tommy should not descend into an
unhealthy obsession with the past. Indonesia will suffer if that
is to be the case because the obsession will distract it. But the
knowledge that justice does prevail will not only be a salve for
what it has endured, but also be a source of hope that the
reforms which its leaders are trying to make will lead the
country to a better future. What a resolution of the Tommy affair
should mean is that power is no protection from the law.

Underlining that truth will do Indonesia a great deal of good,
particularly in an international situation where well-wishers
want to see the rule of law prevail and guide Indonesia towards a
brighter future.