Ailing Soeharto gets respect but state crimes not forgiven
The New York Times
08 January 2008
From The New York Times, boldface for emphasis by Perspektif Online
Respects Paid to Dying Suharto
By SETH MYDANS
Published: January 8, 2008
JAKARTA, Indonesia — It was the place to be seen over the weekend, the hospital bedside of Indonesia’s former strongman, Suharto, who was driven from office 10 years ago and is now hovering near death as his heart and kidneys weaken.
The president, the vice president, a former president and a small parade of the country’s power elite came to pay their respects.
They emerged with the news late Sunday that after being examined by 40 doctors and placed on a dialysis machine, Mr. Suharto, 86, was awake and had managed a smile and a weak handshake.
By Monday morning, his condition had stabilized, said Dr. Joko Raharjo, one of the many doctors who have cared for Mr. Suharto since he was admitted Friday to Pertamina Hospital with swollen intestines, a dangerously low heart rate and anemia.
"He is still in critical condition because he is now supported by medicines and equipment," the doctor said. Mr. Suharto needs a second pacemaker, he said, but was still too weak to withstand an operation.
Leading the visitors over the weekend was President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who called on the nation to "pray for the best and hope all efforts to restore his health will be successful."
He was followed by Abdurrahman Wahid, another of Mr. Suharto’s successors as president, who said, "He made mistakes, but he also did a great service to the nation."
A place at the bedside vigil was so sought-after that a doctor said visits were being limited to "important people."
But appearances can be deceptive in Indonesia, and the high-level turnout was not necessarily a show of support or even of forgiveness for the corruption and repression of Mr. Suharto’s 32-year rule.
Mr. Wahid and Mr. Yudhoyono, who are liberal democratic leaders, have repudiated Mr. Suharto’s rule, and they have supported the pursuit of corruption cases against him in the courts.
But it was no surprise here to see them by his bedside. After three decades in office and a decade in political exile, Mr. Suharto has become, for better or for worse, Indonesia’s elder statesman.
"I think the number of visitors should be observed as something quite isolated from other types of reaction," said Wimar Witoelar, a leading political commentator. "It is just a cultural mode of honoring older people who are in trouble."
It reflected the strange limbo in which Mr. Suharto has lived since he resigned in May 1998 after an economic collapse, widespread rioting and the loss of support of much of the military and his own cabinet ministers.
On that sunny morning, he was driven in his limousine to his modest house in central Jakarta, and he has lived quietly there ever since, emerging only rarely to attend a family function or to be rushed to the hospital with a medical emergency.
He wields no political power and is mostly forgotten in the clamor of the country’s new democratic system. But every year on his birthday, members of the political and business elite visit his home to pay their respects.
This is not the first time Mr. Yudhoyono has visited Mr. Suharto in the hospital. Like many of the country’s political and business elite, he saw his career as an army general flourish under Mr. Suharto, and whatever he may think of him now, Mr. Yudhoyono still refers to him as "my senior."
Mr. Suharto’s ailments — including strokes, severe intestinal problems and a weakening mind — have been used by his lawyers to keep him out of courtrooms as the government tries fitfully to pursue corruption cases against him.
In September, the United Nations and the World Bank put Mr. Suharto at the top of a new list of world leaders who had embezzled the most from state coffers. They quoted an estimate by Transparency International, a private anticorruption organization, that he stole billion to billion in state assets while in power.
The government has recovered none of it, and analysts say Mr. Suharto has used his money to buy protection in the courts, to protect the wealth of his six children and to maintain a quiet core of supporters, including a team of 12 lawyers.
"Apparently his money is still intact and is able to be used by people who are loyal to him," Mr. Witoelar said. "So loyalty to him even conforms to loyalty toward his estate." A criminal case against Mr. Suharto was dropped in 2000 after a court ruled that he was too sick to attend a trial. He is now facing a slow-moving civil suit that charges him with embezzling .5 billion from a charitable foundation he created.
In December, the National Human Rights Commission said it was examining for prosecution six major cases of human rights abuses, including the killings of more than half a million people in an upheaval when Mr. Suharto took office in the late 1960s.
Mr. Suharto’s hospitalization has reignited a debate over whether such cases should be pursued a decade after his downfall.
Members of his political party, Golkar, said over the weekend that the charges against him should be dropped.
Mr. Wahid, the former president, disagreed. Speaking to reporters after visiting Mr. Suharto’s bedside, he said the cases against him should proceed.
Once that process is complete, he said, "it is up to us to decide whether to forgive him or not."
From the Voice of America, boldface for emphasis by Perspektif Online
Former Indonesian President Suharto Remains in Critical Condition
By TRISH ANDERTON
11 January 2008
After a week in a Jakarta hospital, former Indonesian President Suharto remains in critical condition with a weak heart and failing lungs and kidneys. His medical team says he is still not strong enough to undergo surgery to implant a new pacemaker. Trish Anderton reports from Jakarta.
Former Indonesian President Suharto accompanied by his daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, left, is wheeled out of a hospital room at Pertamina Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, 08 Jan 2008
His doctors have improved Mr. Suharto's blood pressure and hemoglobin levels with transfusions, and the former strongman is undergoing kidney dialysis.
Dr. Mardjo Soebiandono, who heads Mr. Suharto's medical team, spoke to reporters Friday morning. He says photos of his lungs show improvement but not a total recovery, and that Mr. Suharto is still not stable enough to undergo surgery.
Mr. Suharto, who is 86, had a pacemaker implanted to help his heart in 2001, but his doctors say he needs a new one.
High-profile visitors streamed to his bedside earlier in the week, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and current and former ministers. But his doctors put an end to the visits as Mr. Suharto's condition declined.
Mr. Suharto ruled Indonesia with a tight grip for more than 30 years, and tolerated little opposition. During his rule, the country's economy grew dramatically, but widespread corruption and autocratic management led to public unhappiness. He was forced from office in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.
During his rule, Mr. Suharto's family amassed huge fortunes, and for years, the Indonesian government has tried to lay claim to some of it.
His political party, Golkar, has called for the government to drop corruption investigations against Mr. Suharto because of his health.
But the attorney general has denied the request. Political analyst Wimar Witoelar, whose television and radio shows were forced off the air more than once under the Suharto administration, says his day in court is overdue.
"There has been so much injustice done that was not come to terms with," he said. "He is still very powerful through his money and his influence is largely not being accounted for. I mean he should have been put on trial a long time ago."
Hearings in one corruption case against Mr. Suharto continued this week. He and his family have always denied any wrongdoing.
The Indonesian court system has so far shown little ability to hold the Suharto family accountable. In 2006, his son Tommy left prison after serving less than five years for having a judge murdered.
And last September, Indonesia's Supreme Court awarded the former president more than 0 million in a libel suit against Time Magazine over an article about his alleged embezzlement. The magazine is appealing the verdict
From adnkronos international, boldface for emphasis by Perspektif Online
Indonesia: Debate on Suharto's legacy begins as his health fails
Jakarta, 8 Jan. (AKI) – As Indonesia’s former president Suharto fights for his life in a Jakarta hospital, analysts are divided over his political legacy, with some claiming his economic achievements were tainted by human rights abuse.
Speaking to Adnkronos International (AKI), political analyst Thang D. Nguyen said Suharto should be tried in court but should be remembered as the leader who turned Indonesia into an industrialised economy.
"With Suharto’s economic development model, Indonesia was politically stable, because when people have enough to eat, you are unlikely to see chaos or violence," Nguyen said.
"Many Indonesians still call him the 'father of development'," he said.
Between 1966 and 1998, when former general Suharto was president of Indonesia, the country enjoyed an average annual gross domestic product growth of 7 percent.
During the same period, experts estimate the percentage of Indonesians living below the poverty line shrunk from 60 percent to 11 percent and life expectancy improved by 20 years.
However Thang’s view of Suharto's legacy was only partially shared by fellow analyst and political commentator Wimar Witoelar.
"Suharto brought improvements. He brought the World Bank, and first and foremost, the culture and practice of planning to Indonesia," Witoelar told AKI.
"But the planning was soon dominated by exceptions, given to his cronies and family, and the power was used against the people and not for them."
Human right activist and now member of parliament, Nursyahbani Katjasundkana had no doubts in pointing to Suharto’s crimes when talking about his legacy.
"Suharto is responsible for the human rights violations that started in 1965 and for the systemic corruption that occurred during his administration," she said. "I think his totalitarian administration is unforgivable."
Suharto gained control of the country on the back of an alleged military coup against Sukarno by the Communist Party of Indonesia.
He led a campaign of reprisals that saw up to a million people killed and his rule was tainted by widespread human rights abuse.
The former dictator reigned over an extremely corrupt regime that resulted in criminal charges against him once the students-led ‘Reformasi’ movement forced him to step down in 1998.
The criminal charges were dropped in 2006 on medical grounds.
However, a civil case was launched against him last year. In the past few days, some conservatives have called for the civil case to be dropped. The request has been denied by the country’s attorney general, Hendarman Supandji.
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