Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Supreme Court's decision to overturn a graft ruling against Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra Suharto has caused outrage among the public and cast doubts on President Megawati Sukarnoputri's ability to rid Indonesia of endemic corruption.
Legal observers here slammed the Supreme Court's decision, which late on Monday decided to overrule a previous court decision which found the son of former President Suharto guilty of defrauding the state in an US$11-million land deal swap.
"This case indicates the death of our legal system. It appears that no hope can be expected by the public from the Supreme Court ... to restore law enforcement, especially to eradicate corruption," said Mr Teten Masduki, head of the Indonesian Corruption Watch.
Commentators agreed that the ruling was a setback for Ms Megawati's attempts to wipe out widespread corruption, particularly as a recent clean-up of Supreme Court judges was supposed to be the first step in tackling Indonesia's notoriously corrupt judiciary.
Until this ruling, Tommy was the only member of the Suharto clan prosecuted for any crime but has been on the run since November last year.
The local press has been highly critical of the ruling, with one of the most popular papers Rakyat Merdeka suggesting that the judges had been bought off.
The paper's headline read "I will shoot Tommy's justice", quoting an Indonesian citizen interviewed by the paper. In a local TV survey of 1,500 respondents, 85 per cent said they disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling.
"The latest ruling has destroyed what little credibility was left on what is supposed to be the last bastion of justice in this country," said The Jakarta Post in an editorial.
Tommy was sentenced to an 18-month jail term in Nov 2000 over a land scam in 1995 involving his supermarket chain and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). The Supreme Court on Monday overruled the previous ruling, arguing that new evidence had showed Tommy was a commissioner of the company and not a director. This meant he could not be held responsible for the land swop deal.
However, as legal experts pointed out, Tommy had already admitted his guilt by appealing for a pardon from former President Abdurrahman Wahid. This means that his case should not have been reopened. The decision appears to have damaged Indonesia's ailing stock market and the rupiah, with stocks falling for the 10th consecutive day partly in response to threats against American citizens in Indonesia. "People operating here for a while know that they can't depend on the Indonesian court system for justice," said one western business adviser.