What about Soeharto?

What about Soeharto?

To most of us it must be heartening to see that besides
setting a definite agenda for democratic reform through fair and
open general elections as soon as possible, other issues of grave
national concern such as putting a limit on the political role of
the now all-powerful Armed Forces (ABRI) -- especially by
reducing, if not altogether abolishing, the number of seats it is
appointed in the House of Representatives -- are getting the due
attention of representatives at the ongoing Special Session of
the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

One might on the other hand wonder, though, why such a
seemingly simple issue such as holding ex-president Soeharto
accountable for the wrongdoings he committed while he was in
power over the past 32 years appears to be making little headway
in the Assembly's discussions. After all, as holder of the MPR's
mandate to govern, wouldn't it be natural to expect a president
to present the Assembly with an account of his acts and policies
whenever he ends his term or resigns? And wouldn't it be only
natural to expect the MPR to ask for such an account?

With this being the last day of the MPR Special Session,
however, reports coming out of the Assembly have indicated that
there is little hope that a specific decree calling for an
investigation into the wealth of the former president and that of
his family and cronies will be forthcoming since both the Golkar
and Armed Forces (ABRI) factions, who together dominate the
Assembly, have refused to discuss the proposal altogether.

The minority United Development Party (PPP), reflecting the
feeling of people outside the MPR building, is the only faction
in the Assembly calling for such a decree. Golkar and ABRI are
only willing as far as inserting the subject as a clause in a
decree on clean governance. This is another display of their
halfhearted commitment to clean up corruption. A clause in a
decree can easily be ignored, but a specific decree would give
the needed impetus to kick start the investigation.

One might ask how -- without an official probe into the
Soeharto clan's wealth, its extent and how it was acquired -- the
Assembly expects to effectively establish good and clean
governance -- a goal that all parties claim to be set on
achieving. A solid future cannot be built on decayed foundations.

As the public understands it, one major difficulty in tracing
irregularities in the Soeharto clan's ownership of assets is that
many or most of them appear to have been properly acquired --
that is, at least when measured by strictly legal standards. Yet,
in the public's reasoning, considering the unbelievable extent of
the family's holdings -- not to mention cronies -- they clearly
must have been accumulated through improper means. Evidently
there is a good deal to say for this line of reasoning. Few if
any of the public companies which this country counts, for
example, are not in some way or another dependent on services
that can be provided only by companies owned by members or
cronies of Soeharto's family.

Corruption? Not necessarily if one were to look only at the
terms of the contracts. Yet, obviously, this is not a situation
that a democratic egalitarian society would tolerate. Obviously,
it is primarily the government's task to initiate this huge job
of laying bare the tentacles of corruption and/or mismanagement
that have undermined our economy for so long. On the practical
side, uncovering the economic and bureaucratic mismanagement of
the Soeharto era could make it easier for the authorities to
recover lost assets and set standards for improvement. Proving
irregularities could also make it easier for the government to
renegotiate unfavorable contracts with foreign partners.

Last but certainly not least, a good deal more sincerity than
is apparent now in probing the Soeharto fortunes would also
appease critics who believe the government is either unable or
unwilling to reveal Soeharto's past misdeeds.

Unfortunately, the only thing such hesitance achieves is to
arouse suspicions that our present bureaucratic elite -- who were
all or nearly all raised under the New Order -- has itself things
to hide that could not bear to see the light of day.