Waiting for Indonesia's court verdicts
The Straits Times, Asia News Network, Singapore
Indonesia should be enjoying a good run in the court of public opinion. A clutch of court appearances involving the untouchables is raising hopes that the government is not as timorous as thought in wanting to sweep out venality and shore up respect for the law.
The qualification, "should be", is a necessary safeguard. The higher up in the establishment the enforcers reach to yank out malfeasance and criminality, the stronger tends to be skepticism about whether the prosecutions are substantive, a shadow play, or mounted to douse resentment against the misbehaving "nobility".
Past experience is not encouraging. There was the questionable police work concerning Tommy Soeharto's year-long disappearance after a conviction for graft in September 2000. There were the judicial surprises over the quashing of graft charges against two persons in the Bank Bali case, and the Supreme Court's reversing itself over Tommy Soeharto's conviction after having allowed an appeal against his acquittal.
All that would have embarrassed President Megawati Soekarnoputri. If it did not sting her into action, it would have at least stayed her government's hand in not interfering with new judicial moves. But consider what has been happening since on the prosecutorial front.
The scene actually looks perkier. Last week, a court sentenced Bank of Indonesia governor Syahril Sabirin to three years' jail on a corruption charge over the 1999 Bank Bali scandal. But score one for Indonesia, as the conviction had not been expected, considering the release of the two chief defendants. This case, had a web of linkages trailing to Golkar, a partner of Megawati's loose coalition.
Tommy Soeharto's trial on a charge of conspiring in the murder of the Supreme Court judge who convicted him on appeal, will have the nation transfixed. It is entirely correct that the people should peg their government's scale of probity to how this sensational case is conducted and what comes of it.
The manner in which the son of the former president ran rings round the enforcement agencies has become a caricature of what is painfully remiss about key aspects of the reform effort.
But a clearer lead to the inter-play of political forces and a clean-up of Indonesia's image will come in the prosecution of the infamous Bulog case. On Tuesday, the head of the state relief agency Bulog, Rahardi Ramelan, a former minister, went on trial for misdirecting Rp 63 billion rupiah (S$11 million) meant for poverty relief.
On Monday, parliamentary Speaker and Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung faces related charges of misusing Rp 40 billion of that amount as illegal campaign finance. Megawati has a lot riding on this case. Her government depends on Golkar's indulgence, which could explain why her party and Golkar are stalling over the set- up of a parliamentary commission to probe independently the Bulog case and the Speaker's alleged involvement.
Media accounts showing a Golkar connection in the use of Bulog funds could do the party great damage. Whatever the permutations in domestic politics, far more pertinent is whether the process will result in an improved standing for Indonesia internationally. The verdict is awaited.