Marianne Kearney – Anti-corruption campaigners and human-rights lawyers yesterday criticised President Megawati Sukarnoputri's choice of Attorney-General as a step back in the government's drive to tackle graft and rights abuses.
They questioned the ability of Mr Muhammad Abdurrachman, 59, a low-key career prosecutor, to do what the President said she had picked him for – "to enhance the image of the Attorney-General's office, which has recently been not too good".
The President said after swearing him in: "The general public aspiration is to have a clean and respected government. I am sure that, with our support, he can perform his duties well." But the appointment came as a surprise to many in Ms Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P).
They had expected her to choose a neutral outsider or someone from within the Attorney-General's chambers with more credibility.
Observers and PDI-P insiders said the five-day delay in the appointment, which was announced late on Tuesday, suggested that the armed forces had exerted strong pressure on the President.
PDI-P sources said that retired general Hendripoyono, who now heads the military-intelligence agency, and former armed forces chief General Wiranto pressured the President to choose Mr Muhammad because he is sympathetic towards the military. Legal groups said the new Attorney-General was unlikely to pursue large-scale graft cases seriously or to prosecute military figures involved in human-rights abuses.
Legal investigator Agam Faturrohman, from Corruption Watch, said: "I think all the corruption cases and human-rights cases will be dismissed, the same with any Golkar cases or any cases involving huge public finances. The old regime will strike back."
For the past 18 months, international donors have been pressing Indonesia to conduct a credible trial of those allegedly involved in abuses in East Timor. The United States Congress has made military ties and any future arms sales contingent on such a trial.
The new government is also facing pressure both domestically and abroad to launch human-rights trials for military abuses in Irian Jaya, Aceh and in regard to cases such as the massacre of Muslim demonstrators at Tanjung Priok.
However, the military is likely to lobby to prevent high-ranking military officers from being prosecuted for such abuses, said analysts.
One of Mr Muhammad's most difficult tests will be in dealing with corruption cases involving politicians backing Ms Megawati's coalition government. Golkar chief Akbar Tandjung has been linked to a graft case involving the alleged misuse of state funds by his party. And the parliamentary faction chief from the PDI-P, Mr Arifin Panigoro, has been accused of graft at his oil company, Medco. Both Mr Akbar and Mr Arifin are powerful figures and lawyers predict the new Attorney-General is unlikely to pursue them.
He has promised to continue the tough cases pursued by his predecessor Baharuddin Lopa, but he has already expressed reservations. Asked whether he had the courage to prosecute politically-related cases, he told The Jakarta Post: "Let me cross that bridge when I come to it." Another major task for him is to clean up his own very corrupt office, blamed for the failure to prosecute a number of high-profile cases, such as former president Suharto's corruption case.