E-Mail Article
Printer-Friendly
3-Column Format
Translate
Share Article
Text Size
Power elite in Indonesia pay homage to ailing Suharto
JAKARTA: It was the place to be seen over the weekend, the hospital bedside of Indonesia's former strongman, Suharto, who was driven from office 10 years ago and now hovered near death as his heart and kidneys weakened.
The president, the vice president, a former president and a small parade of the country's power elite came to pay their respects, according to local reports.
They emerged with the news late Sunday that after being examined by 40 doctors and placed on a dialysis machine, Suharto, 86, was awake and had managed a smile and a weak handshake.
By Monday morning his condition had stabilized, said Dr. Joko Raharjo, one of the many doctors who have cared for Suharto since he was admitted Friday to Pertamina Hospital with swollen intestines, a dangerously low heart rate and anemia.
"He is still in critical condition because he is now supported by medicines and equipment," the doctor said. Suharto needs a second pacemaker, he said, but was still too weak to withstand an operation.
Today in Asia - Pacific
Leading the visitors over the weekend was President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who called on the nation to "pray for the best and hope all efforts to restore his health will be successful." He was followed by Abdurrahman Wahid, another of Suharto's successors as president, who said: "He made mistakes, but he also did a great service to the nation."
The bedside vigil was so sought-after that a doctor said visits were being limited only to "important people."
But appearances can be deceptive in Indonesia, where appearances are important, and the high-level turnout was not necessarily a show of support or even of forgiveness for the corruption and repression of Suharto's 32-year rule.
Both Wahid and Yudhoyono, in their liberal democratic leadership, have repudiated Suharto's rule and both have supported the pursuit of corruption cases against him in the courts.
But it was no surprise here to see them by his bedside. After three decades in office and a decade in exile from power, Suharto has become, for better or for worse, Indonesia's elder statesman.
"I think the number of visitors should be observed as something quite isolated from other types of reaction," said Wimar Witoelar, a leading political commentator. "It is just a cultural mode of honoring older people who are in trouble."
It reflected the strange limbo in which Suharto has lived since he resigned in May 1998 following an economic collapse, widespread rioting and the loss of support of much of the military and his own cabinet ministers.
On that sunny morning, he was driven in his limousine to his modest house in central Jakarta, and he has lived quietly there ever since, emerging only rarely to attend a family function or to be rushed to the hospital with a medical emergency.
He wields no political power and he is mostly forgotten in the clamor of the country's new democratic system. But every year on his birthday, members of the political and business elite visit his home to pay their respects.
Indeed this is not the first time Yudhoyono has visited Suharto in the hospital. Like many of the country's political and business elite, his career as an army general flourished under Suharto, and whatever he may think of him now, Yudhoyono still refers to Suharto as "my senior."
Suharto's ailments - including strokes, severe intestinal problems and a weakening mind - have been used by his lawyers to keep him out of courtrooms as the government tries fitfully to pursue corruption cases against him.
In September, the United Nations and the World Bank put Suharto at the top of a new list of the world's most corrupt leaders. They quoted an estimate by Transparency International that he stole $15 billion to $35 billion in state assets while in power.
The government has recovered none of it, and analysts say Suharto has used his money to buy protection in the courts, to protect the wealth of his six children and to maintain a quiet core of supporters, including a team of 12 lawyers.
"Apparently his money is still intact and is able to be used by people who are loyal to him," said Wimar. "So loyalty to him even conforms to loyalty towards his estate."
A criminal case against Suharto was dropped in 2000 after a court ruled that he was too sick to attend a trial. He is now facing a slow-moving civil suit that charges him with embezzling $1.5 billion from a charitable foundation he created.
Latest News
