[Kabar-indonesia] Tommy's Release Speaks Volumes [by John McBeth]

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Straits Times (Singapore)
Thursday, November 2, 2006

Tommy's release speaks volumes

John McBeth, Senior Writer

JAKARTA - IN A great many countries, ordering the
assassination of a Supreme Court judge would be punished by
either the death penalty or life imprisonment. But not in
Indonesia, and not when the perpetrator is the son of a once
all-powerful president, whose influence lingers behind the
scenes, even if he may be unaware of it.

Former strongman Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo 'Tommy'
Mandala Putra, 44, has just been given a conditional release
after serving less than a third of his original 15-year
sentence for paying a gunman to kill the judge who had
convicted him of corruption and illegal weapons possession.

The case raises many issues, including disparity in
sentencing and the often higher value judges seem to place
on property than on human life. But more than anything, it
shows that for all the progress made in the last nine years,
true democratisation will continue to elude Indonesia if
there is one law for the rich and another law for the poor.

All this has nothing to do with Western perceptions of what
democracy should be, given the greater emphasis developing
countries place on the community rather than the individual.
But it does have a lot to do with justice and equality,
which in the end constitute the real foundations of a
democratic society.

Take the case of human-rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib,
whose poisoning aboard a Garuda jetliner in 2004 has been
linked to powerful figures in the National Intelligence
Agency. Despite a worldwide outcry, the Indonesian
government has shown little inclination to look beyond an
off-duty pilot whom the Supreme Court recently acquitted of
the murder.

Legal experts also point to the case of Adiguna Sutowo, son
of an ex-Pertamina oil company chief executive, who received
a seven-year sentence for the shooting of a waiter in the
nightclub of a family-owned hotel. Testimony during the
trial showed that Adiguna's pistol misfired twice before it
finally went off, negating arguments that he acted in the
heat of the moment.

Also consider the lack of protection afforded to thousands
of Indonesian migrant workers from impoverished families,
many of whom are mistreated by their employers in Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait. Compare that to the special consular
assistance given to a former senior naval officer who was
recently arrested in the United States on arms smuggling
charges.

But it is Tommy Suharto who typifies the gross imbalance in
the scales of Indonesian justice. A broad smile on his face,
the one-time playboy walked free from Jakarta's Cipinang
Jail on Monday after serving just four years and nine months
for ordering the hit on Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in
July 2001.

Two armed motorcyclists ambushed Mr Kartasasmita in broad
daylight on a busy Jakarta street, less than a year after he
had sentenced the younger Suharto to 18 months in jail for
an US$11 million (S$17.3 million) real estate scam.
Prosecutors alleged that Tommy tried to overturn the
conviction by bribing the judge and, when that failed, he
ordered the hit.

The killing took place while he was on the run, eluding
police for more than a year before he was finally
'apprehended'. But if critics poured scorn on the farcical
manhunt, they were incensed when prosecutors sought only a
15-year sentence for a sensational contract killing that
carried the maximum penalty of death.

Media commentators called the outcome a 'joke' and United
Nations special rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy described the
trial as 'one of the worst I've ever seen'.

Although it was never verified, there was a widely
circulated story at the time that Tommy took such extreme
revenge because the judge went back on a deal under which he
would have been acquitted on appeal. Equally unclear is why
Mr Kartasasmita's own colleagues on the Supreme Court later
cut Tommy's prison term to 10 years. The court has never
provided an adequate explanation, but the reduction was then
followed by overly generous, good-conduct remissions
totalling 31 months awarded each year on Independence Day
and Aidilfitri.

Even then, it is clear Tommy did not spend all his time in
Central Java's Nusakambangan island prison, where he was
held for most of his sentence. In early 2003, one
particularly credible source witnessed Tommy and a large
entourage entering Bali's upscale Kudeta restaurant. Other
sightings were subsequently reported on golf courses and in
luxury Jakarta hotels.

None of this should have come as a surprise, given the tale
of businessman Eddie Tansil, who was given life in 1994 for
stealing US$430 million in unsecured state bank loans. It
later transpired that Tansil had been regularly bribing his
way out of jail so he could attend to business matters. In
May 1996, he failed to return from the office. He has not
been seen since.

Far too many people look on Tommy's early release as simply
a consequence of the authorities following the accepted
rules of the Indonesian justice system. Not enough debate
has centred on the leniency of his sentence and why the
system appeared to almost bend over backwards to provide
lenient treatment to someone who has never enjoyed much
public sympathy.

If former president Suharto himself is now mentally
impaired, the circle of influence he created appears to live
on.

'It shows the old status quo people, the friends of the old
man (Suharto), are everywhere,' says legal reformer and
human-rights lawyer Toding Mulya Lubis, who is currently
battling to save three young Australians from the firing
squad for attempting to smuggle heroin through Bali's
airport.
Another Australian, Schapelle Corby, is serving a 20-year
sentence in Bali for smuggling 4kg of marijuana. While she
may have become a cause celebre, there are dozens of similar
cases where Indonesians charged with offences that do not
involve loss of life are handed punishments far more onerous
than Tommy's.

Meanwhile, Mr Munir's voice seems to reach out from the
grave.

'Tommy's verdict will be a test for the Indonesian judicial
system,' he said before the judgment was delivered in 2002.
'The verdict can be fresh water in the desert of injustice
in Indonesia.'

Mr Munir's own murder three years later - and the lack of
progress in finding the masterminds - has revealed how
waterless that desert continues to be.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

The case raises many issues, including disparity in
sentencing... But more than anything, it shows that for all
the progress made in the last nine years, true
democratisation will continue to elude Indonesia if there is
one law for the rich and another law for the poor.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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