Marcus Gee
Globe and Mail ; with reports from Reuters and AFP
August 4, 2000

Analysts doubt conviction would result in jail time for Indonesia’s former president

Disgraced, thrown from power, then made a prisoner in his own home, Indonesia’s former president Suharto faced further humiliation yesterday when prosecutors charged him with stealing $210-million in state funds.

The corruption charges set the stage for a high-profile public trial of the frail 79-year-old, the unquestioned ruler of Indonesia for 32 years before his overthrow in 1998.

But Suharto may never go to jail. President Abdurrahman Wahid has promised to pardon him if a judge convicts him at the trial, which could start as early as this month.

Yesterday’s charges cover just a fraction of the billions the Suharto family is said to have amassed. Suharto, his wife and children took advantage of their power to build a sprawling business empire that included highways, car factories, cigarette makers and shipping companies.

A Time magazine investigation estimated their wealth at $21-billion. Mr. Wahid has put the figure even higher, $35-billion. The per-capita annual income in Indonesia is $3,700.

Suharto says that whatever wealth he may have accumulated came from saving his presidential salary and renting out two houses he owns. He insists he does not have even “one cent” hidden in foreign bank accounts.

Prosecutors think otherwise. After months of investigation led by crusading Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, they visited Suharto’s house in a prosperous Jakarta neighbourhood yesterday and asked him to sign a document acknowledging the charges against him. Suharto is under house arrest for refusing to co-operate with investigators.

“From now on, Suharto’s status is as a defendant,” Umbu Laga Lazore, a member of the team that investigated his wealth, told reporters.

Suharto’s lawyers say a series of strokes have left him too ill and confused to stand trial.

As prosecutors visited Suharto yesterday, hundreds of police assembled to protect him from protesters. Young demonstrators have held almost daily protests to call for an early trial, and yesterday a small band of students gathered nearby chanting “Hang Suharto.”

The rising calls for justice are a bitter pill for Suharto, who is proud that Indonesia enjoyed economic development and political stability for most of his rule.

After he fell from power in May, 1998, resigning after a wave of rioting and student protests, it looked at first as though he might be rewarded with a comfortable retirement.

Living quietly in his large but modest house, he was said to spend his time playing golf and watching nature programs on the Discovery Channel.

His successor and protégé, B. J. Habibie, dropped corruption charges against him, saying there was not enough evidence.

But Mr. Wahid reopened the case after taking office last fall. He says a trial must go ahead, but at the same time insists that putting Suharto in jail would threaten “national reconciliation.”

But some observers think it’s a hollow gesture. “I don’t think Wahid has ever been serious about prosecuting Suharto,” said Bill Liddle, who teaches Indonesian politics at Ohio State University. “He wants to create the impression that he is fighting corruption, but he doesn’t want a former president going to jail.”

Yesterday’s charges focus on several charitable foundations presided over by Suharto.

The foundations became wealthy by taking mandatory levies from the salaries of millions of government workers. The money was supposed to benefit social causes, but prosecutors say much of it went to business ventures owned by the Suharto family and their friends.

The dealings of the Suharto family were so notorious that wits referred to Suharto’s late wife, Tien, as “Madam Ten Per Cent.”

His sons and daughters became tycoons at a young age, but Suharto said they rose on their own merits. He told investigators that his son Tommy won a multimillion-dollar car contract because no one else applied.

Some of his six children and many of his cronies are still in business.

Officials of the World Bank and other international organizations have been leaning on Indonesia to act against corruption. A global survey last year said that only Nigeria and Cameroon were more corrupt.

The coming Suharto trial will be a test of whether the struggling nation of 210 million people can overcome the continuing scourge of corruption and reform its lagging economy.

“Wahid will pardon Suharto, but the trial is not entirely an empty gesture,” said Stewart Sutley, an Indonesia specialist at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont. “It shows that even a former president is not above the rule of law and sets a precedent for others who may have followed his orders.”

The charges come at an important moment for Mr. Wahid, who has been struggling to assert his authority. Indonesia has been beset by economic trouble and religious violence since Suharto fell from power, and Mr. Wahid has had trouble keeping a lid on the country’s problems.