Sander Thoenes, Jakarta – Former President Suharto yesterday filed a multi-billion dollar libel suit against Time magazine in a case that highlights the new government's failure to pursue corruption charges against him.
Mr Suharto's lawyer would not disclose the exact sum demanded by Mr Suharto over the article, which printed lists of claimed Suharto family assets abroad worth billions of dollars. Mr Suharto denies holding any foreign assets or bank accounts.
The report, relished and regurgitated by Indonesian newspapers, has been a strong weapon of opponents to President B.J. Habibie, who runs for re-election later this year but has failed to pursue a wave of corruption allegations against Mr Suharto and his former ministers. Even the government party, Golkar, has said it will not support his candidacy unless he pursues his former mentor in court.
"There is no political will in the government," said Teten Masduki, head of Indonesia Corruption Watch, an organisation which has published investigations about alleged fraud by Mr Suharto and other officials. "The government always says 'we don't have enough proof'."
Mr Habibie has suspended but refused to sack Andi Ghalib, his attorney general. Mr Ghalib's office has questioned Mr Suharto and his siblings but only brought two minor cases against two of his sons to court. It made a show of dragging Mr Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, into court for allegations of fraud in a minor land swap but the case has dragged on for months.
Prosecutors made more progress pursuing two politically active business executives who were singled out by Mr Habibie for criticising him, even though their corruption charges focus only on a failure to pay debts.
A court yesterday dropped the case against Arifin Panigoro, an oil magnate who supports opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, conceding that it had no authority to prosecute him.
State companies such as Pertamina, the oil and gas monopoly, have cut off the Suharto family from profitable licences and monopolies.
Sempati Airlines, partly owned by Mr Hutomo, was declared bankrupt yesterday but that was at the company's request, while dozens of other family businesses have been left alone in spite of failure to pay billions of dollars to state banks, tax offices and private creditors.