After months of delays, false starts and a performance to rival Christopher Skase's "Now I'm sick, now I'm not", former president Suharto is finally to stand trial for embezzlement of Indonesian state funds.
On August 3, the 79-year-old Suharto was formally charged with siphoning off US$570 million through a complex network of charities that he controlled in his capacity as president. Through the foundations, the granting of monopolies and sweetheart deals, the former first family diversified its holdings across the economy, from toll roads in Jakarta and tourist hotels in Bali to chemicals, petrol., telecommunications, real estate, cloves and chicken and pork farming.
Suharto, who is under house arrest, will probably avoid attending the largely procedural hearing on the grounds of alleged ill health.
Independent investigators, Indonesian human rights lawyers and international human rights groups agree that the proceedings are little more than a sham.
Agam Fatchurrochman, from Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), was quoted by the August 5 South China Morning Post as saying it is "just a drama". "You know Indonesia - you can buy lawyers, judges, even [a government department] itself". He added: "In our view, this Suharto process now will go on for about two or three months only. After that the case will be dismissed; they will say something like the charges are not suitable because anyway the charitable foundations were not part of the government bureaucracy."
Scepticism has been fuelled by the timing: the charges coincided with the opening of a special parliamentary session on August 7 to grill President Abrurrahman Wahid over the slow pace of economic reform and allegations of corruption and lack of accountability. Although Suharto's lawyers can be expected to latch on to any excuse to question the legitimacy of the charges, Juan Felix Tampubolon, head of Suharto's legal team, said what many already suspect - that the case was timed to bolster Wahid's flagging popularity.
After previous pronouncements by attorney general Marzuki Darusman that his office is "finally" ready to bring Suharto to account, the move is also designed to appease widespread public anger. Student protesters have been picketing Darusman's office or demonstrating at Suharto's house - demonstrations which have often degenerated in to violent battles with security forces.
Agam also points out that Darusman "is a politician". "Personally and institutionally, Marzuki is part of the [formerly ruling] Golkar party ... As part of Suharto's New Order, he will still back his friends ... We know Suharto can buy judges ... anyone."
Last April, ICW released a scathing report on the country's Supreme Court. Only three of 31 justices were found to be free of corruption; the problem is so blatant that fixers walk up to the cars of defence attorneys as they arrive at the Supreme Court.
According to ICW director Teten Masduki, 80-90% of all legal officials - including prosecutors - accept bribes. With the attorney general's office still staffed by appointees of the Suharto regime, it is doubtful that Suharto can be ever be prosecuted effectively.
Likewise, human rights lawyer Hendardi, head of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, told the July 28 Jakarta Post that the charges were "too vague". "If Suharto is only mentioned in the charges as the founder of the foundations, then I am afraid this is a ruse or scenario to let him walk free", he said.
Regardless of the outcome, Wahid has repeatedly said that, should Suharto be convicted, he will be pardoned if he confesses and returns his ill-gotten wealth to the state.
Crimes against humanity
Even more than by the prospect of Suharto being pardoned, critics are angered by the slow pace of investigations of numerous human rights abuses.
The United Nations and Indonesia's own human rights commission blame Suharto allies in the military for the wave of violence and destruction which followed the vote for independence in East Timor last year.
The number of people killed, tortured or jailed during the Suharto years may be as high as 4 million, according to human rights groups.
But so far, no major figure from the Suharto years has been convicted of anything. Just one human rights trial has been completed, and then only low-ranking soldiers were convicted for a massacre of civilians in Aceh.
Even the establishment media admit that the trial will barely scratch the surface. The August 4 South China Morning Post said, for example: "On the issue of money, and the ties with the bureaucracy and business which allegedly earned the Suharto family billions, this case is little more than one drop in a large bucket.
"Conservative estimates of the Suharto wealth start at US$10 billion. Many bankers and even Wahid [claim it is a much as] US$45 billion ...
"But no matter how much money was siphoned away from the 200 million mostly poor Indonesian people, human rights groups, students and observers say this is nothing compared with murderous behaviour by Suharto."
Mass murder
On Suharto's orders, Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975. Thousands of East Timorese, mainly civilians, were killed. More than 200,000 - almost one-third of the population - died in the ensuing years from Indonesian military activity and disruption to agriculture. Arrest, torture and murder of independence activists continued unabated during the 24-year occupation.
Suharto's rise to power was accomplished at the cost of even more lives. In 1965-66, more than 1 million communists and left-wing sympathisers were massacred and hundreds of thousands interned without trial after Suharto and the military seized power.
Scores were killed and more than 200 arrested on January 15, 1974, during riots in Jakarta following massive student demonstrations against corruption and military abuse.
On October 16, 1975, five journalists reporting on Indonesian preparations to invade East Timor were murdered by Kopassandah (secret warfare) troops in Balibo, East Timor.
As many as 63 people were killed and more than 100 injured on September 12, 1984, when troops fired on peaceful demonstrators in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
An estimated 10,000 petty criminals were murdered during the 1983 "mysterious shootings" (the Petrus campaign) in Jakarta and other major cities. In his 1989 autobiography, Suharto confirmed that he had authorised the killings.
On February 7, 1989, as many as 100 people were killed when troops surrounded a village in Lampung, South Sumatra, opened fire and set fire to homes. The government claimed the villagers were members of a "deviant" Muslim sect and that troops were "defending themselves".
At least 270 died during the November 12, 1991, Santa Cruz massacre in Dili, the capital of East Timor. Independence movement reports assert that as many as 200 more were rounded up and killed in the following days.
In July 1993, two Muslim scholars were shot dead and a number of others badly wounded when police attacked another alleged "religious sect" in Haur Koneng, West Java.
Four people were killed by troops in Nipah in September 1993, on the Island of Madura, as they were demonstrating against land being cleared for a dam project.
In 1993-94 a number of worker activists were killed. The most notorious case was the May 8, 1993, murder of Marsinah. She was killed three days after leading a strike in Surabaya, and was found dead in a remote hut, having been tortured and raped before being killed. There was extensive circumstantial evidence that she had been kidnapped and killed by the military.
Another wave of the Petrus campaign occurred in Jakarta in 1994, this time far more blatantly, uniformed officers carrying out the shootings. More than 100 people were killed or wounded.
On July 27, 1996, paid thugs backed by the military attacked and destroyed the offices Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party in Jakarta, resulting in the death of as many as 50 people. Popular outrage at the attack sparked several days of mass rioting and violent clashes with police.
Journalists investigating corruption linked to Suharto have been targeted. A Yogyakarta-based journalist, Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, was murdered in 1996. He was investigating corruption involving the regent of Bantul, Central Java, who had made a large "donation" to one of Suharto's "charitable" foundations, allegedly to ensure his re-election.
Between January and May 1998, as many as 23 activists were kidnapped by the army's special force, Kopassus, then headed by Suharto's son-in-law, Lieutenant General Prabowo. Many of the nine who "resurfaced" said they had been tortured. One was found dead, and 13 remain missing.
On May 12, 1998, security personnel shot into student protesters from the Trisakti University near their campus in West Jakarta, killing four students and injuring several. Over the following three days, as many as 2000 people died during riots orchestrated by the military. Many of the victims were Chinese Indonesians targeted by organised gangs to deflect anger away from the regime. Hundreds of Chinese women were raped and a number killed.
Between 1980 and 1992, as many as 2000 were killed and hundreds more jailed, accused of being members of the Free Aceh Movement in Indonesia's northern most province. Hundreds of independence activists have been arrested, tortured or killed by the Indonesian military in West Papua since it became part of Indonesia in 1969.
'Inadequate'
In its 1992 country report, the US State Department concluded, "Torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects, detainees, and prisoners are common, and the legal protections are violated by the government".
Aside from those detained in 1965-66, Amnesty International reports that at least 358 prisoners of conscience were detained by security forces during Suharto's rule.
In an August 3 press release, the British human rights group Tapol said that bringing Suharto to trial on charges of corruption "is a totally inadequate response to the horrendous crimes for which he was responsible".
Tapol director Carmel Budiardjo said: "The corruption charges ... do not measure up to the need to indict and punish Suharto for presiding over a systematic campaign of killings and repression ... My recent visit to Indonesia convinced me that people want to see Suharto in the dock and behind bars for the crimes against humanity perpetrated during his regime of terror."
BY JAMES BALOWSKI