Jakarta – Pro-Soeharto protesters threatened yesterday to bring around 25,000 people to the Agriculture Ministry building in Ragunan, South Jakarta, the planned site of the former president's trial slated for August 31.
Field coordinator of the so-called "United Muslim Movement," which hails from the poor district of Tandjung Priok, North Jakarta, Syarifudin Saimudi, said if the government carries out its intention to try the ailing five-star general on August 31, the organization will orchestrate a 25,000-strong demonstration.
Saimudi yesterday led a peaceful rally of some 300 youths outside the South Jakarta district court to protest the decision to bring former dictator Soeharto to trial for corruption next week.
It was the first-known pro-Soeharto protest to take place since the former leader fell from power amid mass student protests in May 1998. The demonstrators marched to a parking lot at the South Jakarta District Court waving banners lauding Soeharto's contributions to economic development.
The South Jakarta court on Wednesday ordered the ageing strongman – reportedly in poor health – to appear in person in court next Thursday. He faces charges of misappropriating US$571 million from the state by funneling money from the huge tax-free charity foundations he ran, into the businesses of family and friends.
The group carried banners, one of which read "Sukarno and Hatta – Proclamators – Soeharto – Father of Development," referring to the country's founders, and to the Soeharto years which followed.
The youths yelled to onlookers that Soeharto had made "a tremendous contribution" to Indonesia's development during his 32 years in power. "Soeharto should not be put on trial," an unidentified leader of the group told journalists after the 30 minute demonstration.
In the two years since his fall from power, students and reformists have staged scores of protests at Soeharto's downtown home, demanding his immediate trial.
Soeharto's trial is scheduled to be held at the agriculture ministry, some 1.2 kilometres southeast of the court, for reasons of security and space, police have said.
Soeharto, now 79, could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, but the country's first democratically-elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid, has pledged a complete pardon – on condition he first stand trial.