Richard C. Paddock, Jakarta – For Suharto, once the all-powerful ruler of Indonesia, life today is a tangle of medical tubes, criminal charges and political intrigue.
Now 79, the former military dictator who ruled for 32 years lives quietly in seclusion in his Jakarta home as family members struggle to save his reputation and their own vast fortunes.
Ailing and sometimes bedridden, Suharto is powerless to protest as police search his house – even his bedroom – looking for his youngest son, a fugitive.
On his bad days, Suharto is hooked up to an oxygen tank to help him breathe. His doctors say strokes have left him with the mental ability of a child. But that has not stopped the government from reviving criminal charges alleging that Suharto stole at least $571 million from charitable foundations he controlled while president.
Even in his troubled retirement, Suharto remains a central figure in the political turmoil of Indonesia as new leaders try to reshape the nation into a democracy.
The ruthless former dictator, who stepped down in May 1998, has not been held accountable for the human rights abuses or widespread corruption that were the hallmarks of his rule. Similarly, few of the business cronies and military officers who carried out his wishes and benefited from his largesse have been prosecuted for their misdeeds.
As a result, national reconciliation remains a distant hope. "Elements of the old regime are still intact in many levels of the government and the society," said Asmara Nababan, general secretary of Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights. "We have to make sure an authoritarian regime does not return to power in Indonesia, whether it is a military dictatorship or another form."
As Cold War-era dictators go, Suharto is in a class of his own. The numbers show that he was more brutal than Augusto Pinochet of Chile and more rapacious than Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.
Whereas Pinochet is accused of being responsible for the deaths or disappearance of 3,200 people, Suharto is blamed for the deaths of 500,000. And while Marcos was accused of stealing as much as $10 billion, Suharto has been accused of siphoning off as much as $45 billion through corrupt practices, fraudulent charities and enforced monopolies.
Suharto, like Pinochet and Marcos, long enjoyed the support of the United States at a time when Washington worried far more about fighting communism than preventing mass killings or large-scale theft.
For Indonesia, moving beyond the Suharto era has been difficult. President Abdurrahman Wahid, an eccentric and nearly blind Muslim leader, maintains only a tentative grip on power 13 months after being elected by Parliament.
Even Wahid's press secretary, Wimar Witoelar, conceded recently to foreign journalists that the president "does not have the competence to govern." But he said Wahid has a good heart and is still the best hope for saving the country. Witoelar called on democratic-minded Indonesians to rally around the president and help him.
The nation remains racked by separatist fighting that claims lives almost daily, and it still struggles to recover from Asia's economic collapse of 1997. Increasingly, many Indonesians long for the stability of the Suharto regime.
Just how ill Suharto really is remains in dispute. His attorneys portray him as a sick old man who is near death's door and understands little of what goes on around him. Prosecutors contend that he is healthy enough to understand the charges against him and withstand a trial. Some members of the public suspect that the wily former general continues to concoct plots and manipulate events behind the scenes.
His house is more modest than might be expected for one of the world's wealthiest families. The home is big but not palatial; the interior is crowded with possessions and the furnishings are dated, visitors say. Numerous security guards sit in front of the house, but the street remains open.
One recent visitor who is sympathetic to Suharto described the former president as "a bit senile" and said he passes his time watching television and reading the paper. "He can talk, but slowly and it takes him a long time to start," the visitor said. "Mostly he was smiling or just nodding a lot. He can walk but also very slowly and sometimes with a walking stick. The family now is just submitting to his fate. If God wants to take him, well, take him."
It is unclear whether Suharto knows that prosecutors have refiled the corruption charges against him that were dismissed in September because of his poor health. Suharto's attorneys have appealed.
Many of Suharto's six children have acquired houses on the same block, and their back yards are connected. One was bought by Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto. He is being hunted by police after failing to turn himself in to serve a prison sentence.
Tommy, 38, said to be Suharto's favorite son, symbolizes the excesses of the dictatorship. Known for his love of beautiful women and fast cars, he amassed a fortune through questionable deals and monopolies, including his control of the lucrative clove industry. Before the economic collapse, his companies bought a controlling interest in auto maker Lamborghini, which he was later forced to sell.
Wahid has accused Tommy Suharto of being behind bombings that coincided with each stage of the corruption case against his father. A car bombing September 13 at the Jakarta Stock Exchange killed 15 people. Wahid ordered the younger Suharto arrested, but the police merely questioned and released him, saying they had no reason to hold the former dictator's son.
Soon after, the billionaire playboy was sentenced to 18 months in prison when the Supreme Court reversed an earlier ruling and found him guilty on charges that he stole $11 million from the government in a land scam.
Tommy Suharto went into hiding, saying through his attorneys that he feared for his safety in prison. The police have been unable to find him since issuing a warrant November 3 for his arrest.
Police have searched more than 40 locations for Tommy Suharto, including the homes of relatives and the grandiose Suharto family mausoleum in the central Java town of Solo, where Suharto's mother is buried.
Authorities have also seized five properties belonging to the son, including his house on Cendana Street, to cover a $3-million fine levied by the court.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said he doubted that the younger Suharto was being shielded so that he could one day step forward as heir to the throne; his life as a jet-setter and race-car driver hardly has prepared him to rule. Indeed, one of Suharto's biggest mistakes would appear to be not grooming a successor.
The attorney general, who recently won a Supreme Court ruling that allows the case against the elder Suharto to proceed without the ailing defendant in court, said he will not let up in his pursuit of the corruption charges. "Mr. Suharto is a symbol of the past," Darusman said. "Resolving this case could be a way to settle the past also. That will be the time a reconciliation could be effected."