Jakarta – Indonesia's fallen president Suharto went on television late Sunday to deny allegations that he had accumulated a fortune worth billions of dollars during his 32 years in power.
"The fact is I don't have one cent... the rumors are not true," Suharto said in a rambling speech on Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI), which is part-owned by one of his daughters. Since he stepped down, Suharto has faced a growing clamor here to answer a Forbes magazine estimate, released in June, that he was worth four billion dollars. "If anyone has proof," he said, they should bring it forward.
It was the second time since stepping down under mounting popular pressure May 21 that the veteran 77-year-old leader had appeared on television. The first time was on July 30 when he handed over three hospitals and 5.6 million dollars from the foundations that built them to the state as an act of goodwill.
On Tuesday of last week the government of Suharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie, said a probe had shown that funds in charitable foundations linked to Suharto were misused and diverted to private firms.
Development Supervision Minister Hartarto Sastrosunarto said the probe launched two months ago by the Attorney General's office and a professional audit team showed signs of abuses of funds in the five largest foundations. "Based on investigation ... there were indications that the use of the foundations' funds was not according to the foundations' charter," Hartarto said.
Attorney General Muhammad Andi Ghalib said that much of the funds were diverted by improper lending to private firms. But Hartarto said the government considered, based on the charters of the five foundations, that the funds could not be considered the private property of Suharto.
[On September 7, AFP reported that the Attorney General said he believed former president Suharto's public denial that he had accumulated a fortune while in power. "He is a former president, how come you would not believe a statement from Suharto?" Andi Muhamad Ghalib told journalists - James Balowski.]