In Twilight of Life, Suharto Still Casts Shadow

JAKARTA, Indonesia —  For Suharto, once the all-powerful ruler of Indonesia, life today is a tangle of medical tubes, criminal charges and political intrigue.

Now 79, the former military dictator who ruled for 32 years lives quietly in seclusion in his Jakarta home as family members struggle to save his reputation and their own vast fortunes.

Ailing and sometimes bedridden, Suharto is powerless to protest as police search his house--even his bedroom--looking for his youngest son, a fugitive.

On his bad days, Suharto is hooked up to an oxygen tank to help him breathe. His doctors say strokes have left him with the mental ability of a child. But that has not stopped the government from reviving criminal charges alleging that Suharto stole at least $571 million from charitable foundations he controlled while president.

Even in his troubled retirement, Suharto remains a central figure in the political turmoil of Indonesia as new leaders try to reshape the nation into a democracy.

Few Prosecutions

The ruthless former dictator, who stepped down in May 1998, has not been held accountable for the human rights abuses or massive corruption that were the hallmarks of his rule. Similarly, few of the business cronies and military officers who carried out his wishes and benefited from his largess have been prosecuted for their misdeeds.

As a result, national reconciliation remains a distant hope.

“Elements of the old regime are still intact in many levels of the government and the society,” said Asmara Nababan, general secretary of Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights. “We have to make sure an authoritarian regime does not return to power in Indonesia, whether it is a military dictatorship or another form.”

As Cold War-era dictators go, Suharto is in a class of his own. The numbers show that he was more brutal than Augusto Pinochet of Chile and more rapacious than Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines.

Whereas Pinochet is accused of being responsible for the deaths or disappearance of 3,200 people, Suharto is blamed for the deaths of 500,000. And while Marcos was accused of stealing as much as $10 billion, Suharto has been accused of siphoning off as much as $45 billion through corrupt practices, fraudulent charities and enforced monopolies.

Suharto, like Pinochet and Marcos, long enjoyed the support of the United States at a time when Washington worried far more about fighting communism than preventing mass killings or large-scale theft.

For Indonesia, moving beyond the Suharto era has been difficult.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, an eccentric and nearly blind Muslim leader, maintains only a tentative grip on power 13 months after being elected by parliament.

Even Wahid’s press secretary, Wimar Witoelar, conceded recently to foreign journalists that the president “does not have the competence to govern.” But he said Wahid has a good heart and is still the best hope for saving the country. Witoelar called on democratic-minded Indonesians to rally around the president and help him.

The nation remains racked by separatist fighting that claims lives almost daily, and it still struggles to recover from Asia’s economic collapse of 1997. Increasingly, many Indonesians long for the stability of the Suharto regime.

“Many people still hate Suharto. They remember his corruption,” said Rachmi Febrina, an unemployed office worker. “But if you ask me who is the best to lead the country, it is Suharto.”

Just how ill Suharto really is remains in dispute. His attorneys portray him as a sick old man who is near death’s door and understands little of what goes on around him.

Prosecutors contend that he is healthy enough to understand the charges against him and withstand a trial. Some members of the public suspect that the wily former general continues to concoct plots and manipulate events behind the scenes.

Suharto is living out his days at his house on Cendana Street in a quiet tree-lined neighborhood in central Jakarta where he and his family have long resided.

His house is more modest than might be expected for one of the world’s wealthiest families. The dark green home is big but not palatial; the interior is crowded with possessions and the furnishings are dated, visitors say. Numerous security guards sit in front of the house, but the street remains open.

‘A Bit Senile’

One recent visitor who is sympathetic to Suharto described the former president as “a bit senile” and said he passes his time watching television and reading the paper.

“He can talk, but slowly, and it takes him a long time to start,” the visitor said. “Mostly he was smiling or just nodding a lot. He can walk but also very slowly and sometimes with a walking stick. The family now is just submitting to his fate. If God wants to take him, well, take him.”

It is unclear whether Suharto knows that prosecutors have refiled the corruption charges against him that were dismissed in September because of his poor health. Suharto’s attorneys have appealed.

Many of Suharto’s six children have acquired houses on the same block, and their backyards are connected. One was bought by Suharto’s youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto. He is being hunted by police after failing to turn himself in to serve a prison sentence.

The 38-year-old Tommy, said to be Suharto’s favorite son, symbolizes the excesses of the dictatorship. Known for his love of beautiful women and fast cars, he amassed a fortune through questionable deals and monopolies, including his control of the lucrative clove industry. Before the economic collapse, his companies bought a controlling interest in auto maker Lamborghini, which he was later forced to sell.

Wahid has accused Tommy Suharto of being behind bombings that coincided with each stage of the corruption case against his father. A car bombing Sept. 13 at the Jakarta Stock Exchange killed 15 people. Wahid ordered the younger Suharto arrested, but the police merely questioned and released him, saying they had no reason to hold the former dictator’s son.

Soon after, the billionaire playboy was sentenced to 18 months in prison when the Supreme Court reversed an earlier ruling and found him guilty on charges that he stole $11 million from the government in a land scam.

After Wahid refused to issue a pardon, Tommy Suharto went into hiding, saying through his attorneys that he feared for his safety in prison. His handsome face is widely known, but the police have been unable to find him since issuing a warrant Nov. 3 for his arrest.

On Nov. 15, the elder Suharto fell ill. Doctors were initially concerned that he might have suffered another stroke. He was put on oxygen support in a bedroom of the Cendana house that was set up as a medical unit.

Police, who had searched the house days earlier for Suharto’s son, combed it again, hoping that the country’s most wanted man might have rushed to his father’s bedside. No luck.

Harry Montolalu, chief police detective in Jakarta, the capital, said he entered Suharto’s room during the search and found the former president asleep. “His head was facing the door, but he did not wake up,” Montolalu said. In an adjoining bedroom, his grandchildren were watching television.

In other parts of the house, police lifted up the carpet in the hope of finding a trapdoor to a hidden bunker that has long been rumored to exist beneath the complex of Suharto family houses. But Montolalu said police found no sign of one.

“We checked everything that might be a secret door,” he said. “I did not find one. Maybe there is one, but it is tremendously well hidden.”

Police have searched more than 40 locations for Tommy Suharto, including the homes of relatives and the grandiose Suharto family mausoleum in the central Java town of Solo, where Suharto’s mother is buried.

Authorities have also seized five properties belonging to the son, including his house on Cendana Street, to cover a $3-million fine levied by the court.

Wahid continues to take a personal interest in the case. Last month, he ordered police to tap a cellular phone Tommy Suharto apparently was using to call one of his sisters.

Some government officials suspect that members of the military loyal to the former dictator are helping to hide his son. In Indonesia, police do not have the authority to search military bases.

“I don’t think [Tommy is] able to do it alone,” said Atty. Gen. Marzuki Darusman. “Someone is helping him.”

But Darusman said he doubted that the younger Suharto was being shielded so that he could one day step forward as heir to the throne; Tommy Suharto’s life as a jet-setter and race-car driver has hardly prepared him to rule. Indeed, one of Suharto’s biggest mistakes would appear to be not grooming a successor.

The attorney general, who recently won a Supreme Court ruling that allows the case against the elder Suharto to proceed without the ailing defendant in court, said he will not let up in his pursuit of the corruption charges.

“Mr. Suharto is a symbol of the past,” Darusman said. “Resolving this case could be a way to settle the past also. That will be the time a reconciliation could be effected.”

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The Rise and Fall of Suharto

Suharto, the 79-year-old former dictator of Indonesia, once wielded immense power. A timeline of his rise and fall:

* 1940: Suharto joins the army.

* 1946-1965: Rises from battalion commander to major general.

* 1965-66: Crushes a leftist coup, later seizing control of the nation from President Sukarno. Hundreds of thousands of suspected Communists are killed.

* 1967: Named acting president, launching three decades of repressive rule.

* 1968: Elected president.

* 1973-98: Reelected president six times, facing no opposition.

* 1975: Orders invasion and later annexation of East Timor, prompting protests from human rights groups as thousands are slaughtered.

* 1989: Wins U.N. award for efforts in controlling Indonesian population.

* July 1996: The worst anti-government riots in three decades erupt in the capital, Jakarta.

* 1997-98: Asia’s economy deteriorates, and Indonesia’s currency tumbles. Thousands of Indonesians hoard supermarket goods amid fears of political and social unrest.

* May 12, 1998: Six students are killed and about 20 wounded when police open fire on protesters calling for an end to Suharto’s rule.

* May 19, 1998: In the wake of the slayings and after months of economic and political turmoil, Suharto says he will step down as president after reshuffling his Cabinet and holding general elections.

* May 21, 1998: Pressed to move more quickly, Suharto resigns after 32 years in control, handing power to his vice president, B. J. Habibie.

* May 2000: Indonesian prosecutors place Suharto under house arrest, promising that he will stand trial on embezzlement charges.

* August 2000: Suharto is charged with siphoning off at least $570 million in state funds.

* September 2000: Suharto’s youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto, is questioned and released by Jakarta police in connection with recent bombings.

* September 2000: A court rules that the elder Suharto is too ill to stand trial on corruption charges and dismisses all counts against him. The charges are later revived.

* November 2000: Tommy Suharto goes into hiding after prosecutors issue a warrant for his arrest and imprisonment on a corruption conviction.

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Source: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press