Will the public prevail?
The longer the public vacillates over putting Soeharto's crimes on trial, the more the public shows its lack of backbone. If people wonder how the public allowed Soeharto to get away with atrocities and corruption during his years in power, the answer can be seen readily how the same public is allowing Soeharto to elude justice again and again. A comment on this website asked how the Indonesian people were so patient in dealing with Soeharto. The simple answer is that there were a lot of impatient people, but many more people who defended him because they enjoyed the benefits of Soeharto's corrupt rule.
The breakdown should be different now. Soeharto has less power, or no power except the power of his money, so there should be less people on his side. Yet every day television shows dozens of public figures coming to pay him a visit at the hospital. But there is an important difference from the time when obsequious figures fawned around him looking for favors. Now at least when he is in the headlines, many voices remind the public of his alleged criminal past.
Aboeprijadi Santoso wrote in his article "Soeharto's 'liminal' problem" in the Jakarta Post of January 13, 2008 ( too bad their URL is shaky):
...Over time, it might be expected that both the hospital-visit ritual by the supporters and the debate over Soeharto's legacy, alleged corruption and crimes among his opponents, may become routine and loses relevance. Wrong. The visit ritual and the debate has only intensified as Soeharto's health has gotten worse. Both sides have to get used to it, and silently expect that his final day will soon come... Since Soeharto's rule is viewed as an antithesis of all virtues of democracy, the homage ritual by his supporters cannot be seen as serving Indonesia's new democracy and its people. Soeharto himself never acted similarly: he only visited Gen. A.H. Nasution's and president Sukarno's families after the two men died... On balance, while the hospital visit ritual by Soeharto loyalists does nothing to educate the nation on democracy, the debate and discourse over Soeharto's legacy are clearly more useful -- certainly as many of his critics would remind the public of him being politically responsible for the 1965 mass killings, East Timor genocide, Aceh bloodbath and massive corruption.
Whether Soeharto will stand trial or not (even in absentia) is as much a question of his personna as well as a test of the public to demand accountability for serious crimes against the people.
from persepektif.net
