Prosecutors plan to bring Suharto to court in the second half of August. However, Suharto's lawyers claim this is impossible because of the permanent brain damage their client has suffered as a result of a stroke. His doctors claim that for a year he has not even been able to answer the questions submitted to him. At the same time the Attorney General in charge of prosecuting the old dictator is under constant death threats. Recently his office was destroyed by a bomb after he made a new attempt to force Suharto to obey his injunctions.
Stakes indeed are very high.
But the incapacity of this government to eradicate corruption does not stop at Suharto's case. Until now no one from the old regime suspected of corruption and embezzlement has been put on trial. It comes as no surprise that more and more people become cynical about the outcome of the trial of the generals involved in the last years' massacre in East Timor or the officers involved in the abduction, torture and killing of the women's union organiser Marsinah in East Java. On the socio-economic front Indonesia is at its grimiest. The country is now relying more and more on world imperialism through the funds of the IMF and the World Bank.