Tommy uses clout to evade arrest?

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, NOV. 25. Nearly three weeks have passed since the Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, rejected a pardon plea by Mr. Tommy Suharto, convicted son of Gen. Suharto, and the former President's favourite child went missing.

The inability of the Indonesian State to catch and put the 38- year-old junior Suharto in jail after being convicted on corruption charges is sufficient commentary on the state of governance in the country.

Mr. Tommy Suharto's ability to escape justice is also reflective of a sad, albeit simple fact - that the Suharto family may be out of power, but they can still influence the course of events.

In a bizarre statement, Mr. Wahid has ordered a ``tap'' on Mr. Tommy Suharto's phone - a step which the police would have taken in the normal course a long time ago. An ``order'' from the President would not have been required for the telephone tap to go into effect.

It's not as if those in Government are not conscious of the damage that is being caused by the inability of the police to nab him. ``It (finding Tommy soon) is likely but more (important) than the likelihood is the necessity for finding him or else the whole credibility of the Government will collapse,'' Mr. Wimar Witolear, spokesman for the President, was quoted as saying in Jakarta.

Here, it may be recalled, that Mr. Wahid, whose method of operation is some kind of a mystery, had two meetings with Mr. Tommy Suharto, leading to all kinds of speculation that a ``deal'' had been cut between the Government and the Suhartos.

For the ordinary people in Indonesia, their faith in democracy and fair governance hinges on conviction and prosecution of the Suhartos. Finally, after the first Suharto was sentenced to an 18-month jail sentence by the Supreme Court, the convict found it easy to melt away.

After the police finally got its act together and went to take Mr. Tommy Suharto into custody, they found that the leading light of the erstwhile ruling family had skipped.

A search of his house was launched several days after the police first came knocking - a sign of total neglect at best and complicity at worst.

Even if Mr. Tommy Suharto is found and jailed, the Wahid Government will be unable to claim that it has done the right thing by democracy and the Indonesian people.

By looking weak and ineffective, the Government has only confirmed what its critics have always alleged - that behind the facade of the new democracy in Indonesia lurks the hand of Suharto's ``new order'' regime.

The Tommy Suharto case plunged to new depths after the Indonesian Attorney-General, Mr. Marzuki Darusman, denied a newspaper report today that he wanted the interrogation of a senior prosecutor for allegedly blocking the capture of the junior Suharto.

``It's not true that (Mr.) Antasari Azhar (head of the South Jakarta Attorney-General's office) blocked the (arrest) and we did not say that we had complained about him to the police,'' Mr. Darusman said.

At this late stage, when the arrest of Mr. Tommy Suharto has become a joke, the Government can still salvage whatever is left of its credibility by nabbing and sending Gen. Suharto's youngest son to jail.

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