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Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana |
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How times have changed. Only three years ago, any foreign investor planning to come to Indonesia would have been delighted to receive an appointment list featuring the following names: Bob Hasan, minister of trade and industry, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, co-ordinating minister for economics and finance, and Ali Wardhana, economic adviser to then president Suharto. If he also managed to see Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, the president’s daughter, he would probably have been immediately ready to sign on the dotted line.
Not now. Hasan, whose appeal also resided in his very close relationship with the former president, his golfing partner, is now an inmate of Jakarta’s main prison, having had a one-year sentence for corruption increased to six years. Kartasasmita, currently on secondment to Harvard University, has been named as a suspect in a bribery case relating to state oil company Pertamina and is required to appear for questioning this month.
Wardhana, the co-founder of the Berkeley mafia group of University of California-educated economists who steered Indonesia out of crisis in the mid-1960s after Suharto took power, has been banned from leaving the country in connection with an investigation into $500 million of debts at Bahana Securities, the second largest local investment bank.
Rukmana, better known as Tutut, is now a frequent visitor to the attorney general’s office, where she undergoes questioning about oil pipeline deals. Like her father, who has so far escaped trial on corruption charges because of ill health, Rukmana is normally equipped with an oxygen mask in case the questioning becomes too stressful. Her brother Tommy, the first Suharto family member convicted of corruption, remains at large, seemingly untouchable.
All this means that Indonesia has made some progress in bringing corrupt officials and cronies to justice, but there remains a long way to go. Fundamental to the problem is a malfunctioning of the courts. The recent sacking of Yusril Mahendra, the minister of justice, a radical Muslim close to Suharto who had repeatedly criticized new Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, could have a positive effect on the future of the courts.
Wahid replaced Mahendra with Baharuddin Lopa, a tough and honest official who was formerly head of the National Human Rights Commission. Lopa immediately issued a warning to judges about corruption, signalling his intention of cleaning up the legal system, a key demand of Wahid’s critics. “Lopa has high credibility,” says a western lawyer who advises the government on corruption matters. “He was very forceful on the human rights commission and has experience in the justice department as head of corrections. He’s a man of integrity.”
Only a few days elapsed before Lopa was able to demonstrate his approach: after a major riot in Jakarta’s main jail, he moved swiftly to sack the prison administrator and restore order.
Marzuki Darusman, the attorney general, whose activities have been constantly thwarted by political intervention and corruption in the courts, has also stepped up investigations into the Suharto family and friends. Medical treatment for Suharto himself has now been turned over to a team of state doctors charged with returning him as soon as possible to a fit state to stand trial.
Darusman has launched investigations into a web of deals relating to an oil refinery that could implicate Sigit, the president’s eldest son.
IB Sudjana, the last oil minister under president Suharto, has pointed the finger at the ex-leader as the prime mover in a number of corrupt deals. Suharto’s adopted brother, Probosutedjo, has also been questioned about a suspect forestry deal.
President Wahid has now backed a proposal by Adi Andoyo Sucipto, head of the Joint Team for the Eradication of Corruption, a government body, to establish an emergency tribunal with ad hoc judges and prosecutors to try corruption cases. “We have to bypass the normal criminal code, which hinders investigations into corruption,” Sucipto says.
That could help to convince the public that the government is serious about cleaning up the problem. As more senior government officials are brought in for questioning, more detailed information is also likely to emerge about the way the Suharto family used the system to enrich themselves. Throwing light on the way the system was manipulated may help Indonesia to prevent the same thing happening again.
