Don Greenlees – The slow wheels of Indonesian justice, rusted to a standstill after 32 years of Suharto rule, have finally begun to turn, bringing friends, business allies and even the children of the former president closer to a legal reckoning.
Indonesians are now being treated to the extraordinary spectacle of Suharto family members and business partners being hauled before judicial investigators and the police for hours of questioning over business practices once regarded as immune from the law.
Eldest Suharto son Bambang Trihatmodjo has been summoned over allegations of illegal lending by his failed Bank Andromeda, one of the first banks ordered to shutdown after the economic crisis hit last year. While he was being called for questioning, police were rounding up 10 of the bank's senior executives.
The names include a couple of ethnic Chinese business high-fliers of the Suharto era: Prajogo Pangestu and Henry Pribadi. All are accused of overseeing a breach in rules setting a limit on funds that could be lent to their own business groups.
Mr Trihatmodjo, Mr Pangestu and Mr Pribadi are also the principle shareholders in the multi-billion-dollar Chandra Asri chemical refinery in West Java. It is believed this company is the recipient of loans alleged to breach the 1992 Banking Law. Some heavy lobbying by investors and the direct intervention of Mr Suharto in 1992 allowed the project to by-pass lending restrictions that would have put a stop to the project.
Promising to clean-up corruption, cronyism and nepotism, Indonesian President B. J. Habibie told a session of the Supreme Advisory Council last Sunday that business people who had treated bank funds like personal war chests would have to pay back every rupiah. "If they are not able to repay their debts, they will be punished as severely as possible," he was quoted as telling the closed-door meeting.
Within days of Dr Habibie's speech, some prominent Suharto cronies began to troop before investigators.
Bob Hasan – business and golfing partner of Mr Suharto – was questioned for several hours by a team from the Attorney-General's office over his Bank Umum Nasional, one of the three recently frozen. He faces accusations of violating the legal lending limit and using 150 trillion rupiah ($24 billion) in Bank Indonesia liquidity support to finance his paper manufacturer PT Kiani Kertas.
Facing an election next year in which any connection to the Suharto clan is likely to be a liability, Dr Habibie has sensed the public mood for justice to at least seen to be done.