In Indonesia, it's good to be a Suharto.
Anyone who doubts that should take a spin around Jakarta and take inventory of how much influence the family of former president Suharto still has. From businesses to real estate, the Suharto name remains omnipresent in a nation that in 1998 thought it had gotten rid of the dictator once and for all.
Yet the most obvious sign of how much pull the Suharto family still has is found in recent newspaper headlines -- the kinds that make the heart skip a beat and the mouth scream: "No way!" Such was the reaction to reports that Suharto may get pardoned for his alleged crimes. Yes, pardoned.
It would all seem comical, if it weren't really happening in the world's fourth-most-populous nation. Charges that Suharto stole hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds might be dropped on what Indonesian Cabinet ministers term "humanitarian grounds." Since his ouster a few years back, the 80-year-old Suharto has claimed to be too ill to stand trial.
Perhaps Suharto is as sick as his handlers suggest. Ill health or not, it comes as no surprise to Indonesia's 210 million inhabitants that the man who ruled them with an iron hand for 32 years won't be tried. But pardoning the former dictator is the last thing President Megawati Sukarnoputri should do. In fact, letting Suharto off the hook could destroy what credibility she has left.
At the very heart of Indonesia's troubles is trust.
Megawati's predecessors, in one way or another, violated it many times over. Take Abdurrahman Wahid, whose impeachment last year delivered Megawati to power. Police want to quiz him over allegations his former staff took some US$1.4 million in bribes. So determined is Wahid to prove his innocence that he claims to be too busy.
Wahid, you see, was attending a previously scheduled meeting of Muslim clerics. The confab, his handlers claimed, couldn't be postponed for anything as trivial as answering corruption charges.
It doesn't help that the man who claims to have bribed Wahid's office is Suharto's son, Tommy. Suharto's son claims the money passed to secure a presidential pardon of his own corruption charges.
This week brought another high-level corruption mess.
Indonesia's House Speaker and a holdover from the Suharto era, Akbar Tandjung, was named a suspect in a case of missing state funds. Tandjung's party, prosecutors allege, used US$3.8 million of public money to support the re-election campaign of Suharto's handpicked successor, B.J. Habibie.
The swamp that is Indonesian politics just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Recent events give international investors, already dubious about the nation's economic prospects, even fewer incentives to be involved with Indonesia.
If Indonesia's government is to pass the global laugh test, it needs to take Suharto's alleged crimes seriously. Even if he's too frail to come to court, he should be tried in absentia.
Megawati, after all, came to power on an anti-corruption platform.
She pledged to end the nepotism and collusion infecting Jakarta's legitimacy. Letting Suharto off the hook would mean the new Indonesia is no different from the old.
The Suharto family's shenanigans already have done irreversible harm to Megawati's legacy. Late last year, she stood silent as the nation's Supreme Court overturned Tommy Suharto's conviction on fraud charges. The episode reminded the world why global watchdog groups rate Indonesia one of the world's most corrupt economies. By saying nothing, Megawati said much.
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