ASEAN Leaders Condone Suharto Era Corruption

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 28 (IPS) - ‘’We pray to Allah to bless Pak Harto’s soul and to place him among the blessed,’’ Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahamad Badawi is reported to have told the local media after news broke of the death on Sunday of Indonesia’s former president Suharto.

Similar words of kindness and sympathy have been expressed by Badawi’s predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, towards the man known fondly to some in South-east Asia as ‘’Pak Harto,’’ or Father Harto.

Earlier in January, as the 86-year-old Grand General (Retired) Haji Mohammed Suharto lay dying in a hospital in Jakarta, Singapore’s founding father and former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, flew into the Indonesian capital to be at the ageing leader’s bedside and to shower praise on his achievements.

Such positive tributes for Suharto -- who was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 4 with heart, lung and kidney problems, and who died of multiple organ failure -- is understandable from present and past leaders of Malaysia and Singapore. For these two countries, along with Thailand and the Philippines, owe a debt to the Indonesian dictator for helping to shape a regional identity in the form of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) and to place it on the world map.

‘’ASEAN would not have come into being if Indonesia under his charge had sought to be a regional hegemon,’’ noted ‘The Straits Times’, a mouthpiece of the Singaporean government, in an editorial last week, about the former leader of South-east Asia’s largest country. ‘’Because it chose to be the facilitator, not the dictator, of regional stability; because it focused on economic and social development; because it was stable for more than 30 years, the region as a whole was able to grow.’’

Others who wrote similar accounts to assess Suharto’s legacy after the former dictator was hospitalised said as much. ‘’Suharto was with ASEAN for 30 years and earned deep respect from present and former ASEAN leaders, as shown by their visits to him at his sickbed,’’ observed Bantarto Bandoro, chief editor of ‘The Indonesian Quarterly,’ a publication of a respected local think tank, in a commentary for ‘The Jakarta Post’. ‘’But he was restrained during his time from projecting himself as a ‘heavyweight’ of ASEAN, because he knew well that ASEAN members states would have to develop their countries in their own way.’’

ASEAN, which has expanded to 10 members today, with the inclusion of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, has just embarked on its next phase as it celebrated its 40th anniversary. To further strengthen its regional ties and identity, the bloc has unveiled a charter to make it a rules-based legal body.

But such a prospect of regional amity appeared remote during the years of Suharto’s predecessor, Achmad Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president after the country gained independence from the Dutch colonialists in 1949. The mercurial Sukarno had greater designs for his country, unleashing in the process a campaign of ‘’konfrontasi,’’ or confrontation, against Malaysia, in 1964. He wanted the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, which belonged to Malaysia, to come under Indonesia’s ambit. To achieve that end, he even threatened to trigger an uprising by arming local leftists and farmers.

Since its creation in 1967, ASEAN’s five founding countries began a steady upward march towards economic development. By the early 1990, some of them were described as Asia’s ‘’Tiger economies’’ for their achievements through open, free-market policies. Foreign investment poured into resource-rich Indonesia, under Suharto, as it did to the other four members of this regional bloc from the United States and other Western countries.

By 1995, the per capita income in Indonesia was over 827 US dollars, according to some reports, up from 195 U.S. dollars in 1965, when Suharto, then a young army general, rose to power. During his 32 years in power, he had also seen the country go from being an importer of rice, the staple dish, to being self-sufficient in the grain. The once bankrupt country also saw progress in the health and education sectors and advances in infrastructure development.

Yet ,such regional stability and economic growth that Suharto helped to shape have not been able to mask the darker side of the region’s politics that has earned ASEAN notoriety. The Indonesian dictator stood out as the worst of the strongmen and autocrats who ruled South-east Asian countries with an iron fist, ranging from Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Lee in Singapore to Mahathir in Malaysia.

Shortly after he emerged as Indonesia’s strongman, following an abortive coup, in 1965, Suharto led a brutal campaign to purge the county of its communist party, all left-leaning intellectuals and artists, sympathisers of the left, citizens of Chinese origin and others perceived to be enemies of the state, including ‘’atheists.’’ Over several months, between 500,000 people to, some say, a million were killed in one of the worst massacres in history.

Suharto’s brutal anti-communist purge was in keeping with a mood shared by other South-east Asian governments in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. This was, after all, during the height of the Cold War and the U.S. war in Vietnam. Washington and London backed such anti-communist repression, as they supported the creation of ASEAN as a bulwark against the spread of left-wing political movements in the region.

Suharto also came to symbolise another form of violence common across South-east Asia, of strong central governments crushing smaller, vulnerable ethnic communities. In 1975, Suharto ordered his troops to occupy East Timor, which had just won independence from Portuguese colonisation, in a brutal campaign. An estimated 200,000 people -- or a third of the half-island nation’s population -- were killed.

And by 1998, when Suharto’s 32 years in power came to an end following a pro-democracy uprising in Indonesia, the colossus of ASEAN had come to epitomise another excess prevalent among the region’s political leaders -- corruption. Studies done by the United Nations and the World Bank have identified Suharto as the worst among national leaders who robbed their country. He is estimated to have embezzled between 15 –35 billion US dollars. It is a list that also includes the former Filipino dictator Marcos.

Yet, by the time he died, nearly a decade after being forced out of power, Suharto evaded justice in a manner familiar with other strongmen who have dominated the political landscape across South-east Asia. His family and lawyers stalled the few attempts to book him by raising concerns about the former dictator’s failing health.

Even Singapore’s Lee, who led his country with an iron grip but won applause for combating corruption, came to Suharto’s rescue this month to help whitewash this sordid side of ASEAN’s history. ‘’What’s a few billion dollars lost in bad excesses?’’ he is reported to have told Singaporean journalists after seeing the former Indonesian dictator in his sickbed.

Suharto's death ends another chapter for Asia's strongmen

In this handout photo released by President Office, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, center, stands by the body of former Indonesian President Suharto at his house in Jakarta, Sunday, Jan 27, 2008. Former dictator Suharto, an army general who crushed Indonesia's communist movement and pushed aside the country's founding father to usher in 32 years of tough rule that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86. (AP Photo/President Office, Anung, HO)

01/27/2008
By Aubrey Belford
Agence France-Presse

JAKARTA -- With the death of Indonesia's Suharto, Asia has lost another of its so-called "strongmen" -- the authoritarian and mostly pro-Western rulers who dominated for much of the late 20th century.

From his seizure of power in 1966 until his downfall in 1998, Suharto ruled Indonesia according to a model favoring market-driven economic growth ringed by repressive social control.

It was an approach common elsewhere in Asia too, justified by a notion that "you need a strong ruler to keep order and bring countries into a modern age, an industrialized age," according to Greg Fealy, an academic at the Australian National University.

The politics of the Cold War era, with the constant specter of a communist threat, also "favored strong states and strong leaders," he said, even if it came at the inevitable expense of civil rights.

Some, like Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, ostentatiously amassed huge wealth for themselves and cronies. Others, like South Korea's Park Chung-hee, were more personally austere while their countries prospered.

Suharto's contemporaries were not cut entirely from the same cloth either.

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad were doubtlessly authoritarian, but not to the extent of iron-willed autocrats such as General Ne Win of Myanmar, whose isolationist rule meant that, unlike the others, he was no darling of the West.

Keeping a tough guy image was optional for such strongmen.

After a speech in 1974 by Park was interrupted by an assassination attempt that missed him but killed his wife, the South Korean leader returned to the podium and finished his speech.

Lee, by contrast, famously shed public tears over his fledgling country's forced separation from Malaysia in 1965, a counter-point to the schoolmasterly authoritarianism with which he micromanaged Singaporean life.

Some of Asia's authoritarian old school have remained close. Mahathir and Lee -- both now in their eighties -- flew to the Indonesian capital Jakarta to visit Suharto as he lay dying in hospital.

The common thread connecting Asia's autocrats was a conviction that Western liberal democracy would not work at home and would even be dangerous, Harold Crouch, an Australian Indonesia expert, told Agence France-Presse.

Their argument was that "Asian values" and the special circumstances of an emerging but fragile region necessitated "an elite to run the country," Crouch said.

But hostility to democracy did not stop Western support for many of Asia's authoritarian leaders, whose anti-communism and acceptance of foreign capital led to varying degrees of closeness.

"The Americans certainly welcomed Suharto coming to power because he killed a lot of communists in doing so," Crouch said, referring to a crackdown on the Indonesian Communist Party that killed upwards of half a million.

Still, Suharto had his own style.

While other leaders such as Mahathir adopted a stern persona, Suharto kept his ruthlessness hidden behind a personable and self-effacing exterior, said Bima Sugiarto, a lecturer at Indonesia's Paramadina University.

"He was known as a smiling general. He was very gentle, very polite but on the other hand he had an extreme skill in controlling all political scenarios behind the scenes," he said.

But while many authoritarian rulers were notorious for their corruption -- the Marcos family being an extreme example -- none matched Suharto for the way he institutionalized graft throughout government, Sugiarto added.

After Ranariddh, now it's Sok An's turn to visit Indonesia former Strongman

Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Sok An speaks to journalists after visiting Indonesia's former president Suharto at Pertamina hospital in Jakarta January 26, 2008. Suharto has been in the hospital since suffering from multiple organ failure on January 4. REUTERS/Crack Palinggi

Suharto: As He Lays Dying

Singaporean senior minister Lee Kuan Yew (left) and former Indonesian dictator Suharto after a meeting in February 2006. (Photo: Dewira / AFP-Getty Images)

January 25, 2008
Andre Vltchek
Worldpress.org
Jakarta, Indonesia

It is 4 p.m., Jan. 13, 2008. The main entrance to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta is besieged by dozens of journalists. Almost all of them are local, as Indonesia doesn't attract international media conglomerates, unless there is a deadly landslide, tsunami, or airplane crash. Some reporters are placing the lenses of video and photo cameras against the glass of the hospital entrance, hoping to spot at least some action.

But there is hardly any detectable movement inside. Gen. Suharto, the 86-year old former military dictator who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, is lying somewhere deep inside this unattractive concrete structure, dying or more precisely in a "very critical condition" after almost all organ functions failed, as his doctor told a news conference. He was rushed to the hospital nine days earlier suffering from anemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung, and kidney problems.

There is no end to the flow of dignitaries offering support or early condolences to his family. Today arrived the stone-faced and tight-lipped former Singaporean Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Suharto's close friend, contemporary, and fellow anti-Communist crusader. Lee, who refused to answer questions of Indonesian journalists, later loosened up to his countrymen, offering his sentiments to Channel News Asia and other Singaporean media: "I feel sad to see a very old friend with whom I had worked closely over the last 30 years not really getting the honors that he deserves. Yes, there was corruption. Yes, he gave favors to his family and his friends. But there was real growth and real progress," Lee was quoted as saying.

Nine years after Suharto stepped down, Indonesia remains one of the world's most corrupt nations. According to Berlin-based Transparency International, it occupies 143rd place out of 180 countries ranked, tied with Gambia, Russia, and Togo (The 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index).

According to the United Nations and the World Bank, there was much more than just average corruption and nepotism during and after Suharto's reign: Suharto tops the list of embezzlers with an estimated $15-35 billion, followed by former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, former president of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) Mobutu Sese Seko, and Sani Abacha of Nigeria. An impressive achievement considering that Suharto's salary in 1999—the year he was forced to resign after massive demonstrations that shook Jakarta—was only $1,764 a month. Critics say that Suharto and his family actually amassed more than $45 billion, even more than concluded by both the United Nations and the World Bank. The family is said to control about 36,000 square kilometers of real estate in Indonesia, including 100,000 square meters of prime office space in Jakarta, and nearly 40 percent of the land in East Timor. More than $73 billion is said to have passed through the family's hands during Suharto's 32-year rule.

But even to allude to such information can still be illegal in Indonesia. The United Nations and World Bank listing arrived just one week after Indonesia's Supreme Court ordered Time Magazine to pay $106 million in damages to the former dictator for defaming him in a 1999 article that accused Suharto and his relatives of amassing billions of dollars during his regime.

Offers made by international organizations to the Indonesian government—to help to identify, freeze, and repatriate money from accounts held by Suharto's family abroad—were spurned and very rarely discussed by the media.

Suharto was charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds, but the government subsequently dropped the case on grounds of the dictator's poor health. In 2007, state prosecutors filed a civil suit seeking a total of $440 million of state funds and a further $1 billion in damages for the alleged misuse of money held by one of Suharto's charitable foundations. But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had risen as a general under the Suharto regime, instructed Attorney General Hendarman Supandji to seek an out-of-court settlement of the civil case with the Suharto family, as the former dictator was fighting for his life in Pertamina Hospital.

Like almost all mainstream Indonesian politicians, Yudhoyono refused to criticize Suharto openly. "Pak Harto [Father Harto] was a leader of this nation. His contributions to this nation are not small. As a human being, however, like other people, Pak Harto has weaknesses and mistakes," he told the press, referring to Suharto by his endearing name.

The Jakarta Post, the pro-establishment English-language daily newspaper, on Jan. 12, captioned its front page photos: "In Their Prayers: Vice President Jusuf Kalla … visits former President Suharto at Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta on Friday. Suciwati…, the widow of human rights advocate Munir Said Thalib, and relatives of other victims of human rights violations place flowers in the lobby of Pertamina Hospital on Friday. They said they would continue with their legal battles against former President Suharto for human rights crimes that occurred during his rule. All the visitors said they were praying for Suharto."

What The Jakarta Post "forgot" to mention was that many human rights activists, as reported by the Indonesian-language daily Kompas, wished for Suharto's recovery so that he could stand trial.

Garda Sembiring, head of P.E.C. (People's Empowerment Consortium)—the Indonesia N.G.O. that tries to unveil human rights crimes, including mass murder cases that took place during 1965 military coup—was himself a prisoner of conscience during the Suharto era. In a phone interview, he expressed outrage at the present situation: "Everybody is now talking about Suharto's illness. I am in shock! Political elites are turning the situation into a political drama. They have a motive: they want the Indonesian people to forget the past. And me personally? Why should I forgive him? I'd love to see him recover, so he could be brought to justice. That's why it would be better for him and for all of us if he survives."

Attempts to try Suharto on charges of genocide have failed not because of his failing health but above all because of the unwillingness of the post-1999 political establishment to openly deal with the past. Indonesia experienced no profound political change in the wake of Suharto's ouster. The country has been ruled by the same business and military elites, with the exception of the brief presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid, who was forced out of power when he sought to separate religion from the state, apologize to the victims of the1965 massacres, and introduce social changes in Indonesia's market-driven system.

Human rights organizations as well as almost all leading historians are accusing Suharto of playing a key role in the 1965 United States-supported military coup designed to sideline nationalist President Sukarno and destroy the Communist Party of Indonesia (P.K.I.), at that time the third largest communist party in the world.

On the night of Sept. 30/Oct. 1, 1965, a group of Sukarno's personal guards kidnapped and murdered six of the right-wing anti-Communist generals. Sukarno's guards claimed that they were trying to stop a C.I.A.-backed military coup, which was planned to remove Sukarno from power on "Army Day." Suharto joined surviving right wing Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution to spearhead a propaganda campaign against the P.K.I. and Sukarno's loyalists.

What followed was a military takeover and a months long orgy of terror, the mass murder of P.K.I. members, citizens of Chinese origin, left-leaning men and women, intellectuals, artists, and anyone who was denounced by neighbors or foes. Massacres were mainly performed by the military and by the right-wing religious groups who went on a rampage against "atheists." Between 500,000 and 3 million people vanished in several months, making the Indonesian killing fields some of the most intensive in world history.

The United States supported the coup and the C.I.A. supplied Suharto and his allies with a list of 10,000 suspected communists. A subsequent C.I.A. study of the events concluded, "In terms of the numbers killed, the anti-P.K.I. massacres in Indonesia rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century" (George McT. Kahin and Audrey R. Kahin, "Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia." New York: The New Press, 1995).

Political dissent was destroyed, so were the trade unions. Indonesia became "open for business," mainly for multinational mining and oil companies willing to take advantage of a scared and docile work force and prepared to pay undisclosed amounts in bribes in exchange for access to the country's abundant raw materials.

Thousands of teachers were murdered. Artists were silenced, film studios closed down. Places where intellectuals of different races used to mingle were destroyed and replaced by the anonymous concrete walls of shopping malls and parking lots. Books were burned, including those of Southeast Asia's greatest novelist, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who became a long-term prisoner of conscience in Buru concentration camp. Pramoedya, until his death in 2006, never forgave Suharto. But not for his personal suffering, rather for "having no culture; for turning Indonesia into a market; for destroying Sukarno's spirit of enthusiasm."

Indonesia after 1965 was experiencing its "Year Zero," like Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. It closed itself to the world for several years, until those who were targeted were rounded up and slaughtered. According to eyewitnesses, the Brantas River in East Java, as well as others throughout the archipelago, was clogged with corpses and red with blood.

The West did not protest. Suharto was viewed as an ally by the United States, Britain, Australia, and other nations who were delighted to have the leader of Indonesia a free-marketer and an ally in the Cold War rather than the populist and non-aligned movement proponent, Sukarno.

Indonesia is an enormous archipelago. It was easy to suppress information, to keep its people in oblivion, to bombard them with propaganda, to isolate them from the rest of the world. No films but Hollywood and local production, with some syrupy soap from all over the world. No serious topics. Only pop, outdated music. The Chinese language was banned, and so were words like "atheism" and "class." For the rest of the world that was barred from learning about the tragedy of 1965-66, it was easy to believe the mass media, which hailed Suharto as an ally and statesman. It was the time of the Cold War and the major American preoccupation was Vietnam. When the dust settled, bodies buried, washed away, or decomposed, Indonesia opened up again: for business and tourism. The Indonesian people, for the most part, were terrorized into silence, with no memory and no desires except to move rhythmically to the latest pop tunes and prayers, close to starvation but grinning as ordered, with no complex thoughts and questions; lobotomized.

And Suharto, a man now fighting for his life, was in charge.

Then came East Timor. In 1975, Suharto sent troops to the newly independent nation that had long suffered from Portuguese colonial neglect—a country that finally won independence and sought to adopt a social (not Communist) course. What followed was a massacre not unlike the one in 1965 (and performed by many familiar faces). Two hundred thousand people—one third of the entire nation—vanished. It seemed that Indonesia was determined to break the record for brutality. The Cold War again played into Suharto's hands. He bombastically justified the invasion of the defenseless little nation—"We will not tolerate Cuba next to our shores"—and received applause and a green light once again, from the United States, Australia, and others. Then came Aceh, Papua, and "trans-migration."

Suharto may have embezzled more money than any other leader in modern history, turning the economy into his private checking account. But he also may be a man responsible for more deaths than any other dictator since World War II.

"I am very disappointed with S. B. Y. [President Yudhoyono] and the attorney general," says Ditasari, leader of the only progressive opposition party in Indonesia—Papernas—for this article. "Statements made by both of them make no sense. We shouldn't hesitate to go on with the legal process, despite Suharto's illness. But the government is scared of those who support Suharto."

As he is dying, Suharto continues to hold the entire country hostage. With fear and opportunism, business and political leaders are goose-stepping in front of his bed. In central Java, country folks say that he sold his soul to black magic, which is why he cannot depart from this world. Everybody seems to be petrified about saying anything that might be deemed inappropriate or offensive.

Behind the windows of the hospital, the decaying city is covered by smog. Despite official statistics, more than half of Indonesians live in misery (even the World Bank classifies 49 percent of Indonesians as poor). Behind the windows lies an enormous, ruined, uncompetitive, and uneducated country, suffering from decades of fear that has left a legacy of blind obedience and, finally, of intellectual stagnation.

Tens of millions of Indonesians can still hear the cries of terror of those who were hacked and beaten to death, decades ago. But they have learned to doubt their own eyes and ears. They have learned to obey.

Suharto may die a free man, surrounded by elites, by servile compliments. But surely even he will not be able to avoid some memories, even in a coma. It is not easy to forget a million people, a million deaths. Standing next to each other, they can fill enormous space and their screams, coming in unison, can break the walls of any hospital—even a private one. And once these screams and cries reach him, he will know that he departs a criminal.

On Deathbed, Suharto Avoids Answering for Crimes

A man looks at a painting of Indonesia's ailing former dictator Suharto in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008. Suharto, in critical condition due to multi-organ failure, was being taken off a respirator Wednesday after his breathing improved, his medical team said. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

January 18, 2008
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times (USA)

SOLO, Indonesia -- Gilang was one of the last victims of former President Suharto’s harsh 32-year rule, a young activist who disappeared here on the day the former president was forced from power 10 years ago and whose body was found six days later, shot, stabbed and disemboweled.

As with many of Mr. Suharto’s victims, his killers have never been identified or brought to justice, escaping prosecution much as Mr. Suharto himself has done over the past decade.

Now, on what appears to be his deathbed, it seems Mr. Suharto will end his life — like Pol Pot in Cambodia — without having to answer for crimes on a monumental scale that include severe human rights abuses and prodigious corruption.

For the past two weeks Mr. Suharto, 86, has struggled for life in a Jakarta hospital with what doctors say is multiple organ failure. Along with a stream of medical reports about his condition, a debate has emerged over whether to honor him as a statesman or to pursue him as a criminal even after his death.

The day of Gilang’s disappearance, May 21, 1998, marked the end of a regime in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed in purges, massacres, assassinations, kidnappings and civil wars.

It was a regime that has been compared with a Mafia empire in which Mr. Suharto, as president, enriched himself, his family and his friends and is accused of stealing at least $15 billion in state funds.

It ended when Mr. Suharto’s power was undermined by a devastating economic collapse, widespread rioting, student demonstrations and finally rejection by his own military and cabinet ministers.

Now in the capital, Jakarta, the mood seems to be one of forgiveness and amnesia. A parade of politicians, religious figures, pop stars and three foreign leaders has paid hushed visits to his bedside as if he were already lying in state.

A number of public figures have joined a call for an end to investigations and prosecutions against him, describing them as unseemly.

Criminal corruption cases against him were shelved years ago but could be revived. The government recently discussed with Mr. Suharto’s family the settlement of a civil case seeking $1.4 billion for money allegedly stolen from charitable foundations.

“There is nothing wrong if we pardon the mistakes made by our former leader, who has made significant contributions to the nation,” said Suryadharma Ali, the minister for small and medium enterprises, in a commonly heard comment.

The philosophy behind this view was articulated the other day by a trader named Japendi Hendry Christianto, 33, as he sat on a stool on the sidewalk here in Solo, in central Java.

“Many people see Suharto as the tiger that eats the deer,” he said. “It is not cruel. It is natural. This is what tigers do.” Every animal has its own nature, he said, and must accept its place in the natural order.

“Suharto cannot be tried, because he is the tiger,” Mr. Japendi said. “He is the king of the jungle. He will die a natural death, and the worms will eat him. It is the cycle of life.”

But as the days have passed, other voices have emerged, taking the view that Mr. Suharto’s crimes are too enormous to shunt aside and that no one is above the law.

“We cannot excuse him,” said Hendardi, who heads the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association. “Forgiveness is in the private domain, but law enforcement is in the public domain. We cannot set a precedent that discriminates in favor of the powerful.”

One of Suharto’s successors as president, Abdurrahman Wahid, also said the law must take its course.

“It is all right to forgive someone’s mistakes,” said Mr. Wahid, who was president from 1999 to 2001. “For Suharto the charges must be continued and examined by the courts. After the trial it is up to people whether he should be forgiven or not.”

Among those challenging the public mood of forgiveness are victims of the abuses of his rule, who have staged small demonstrations in Jakarta and here in central Java.

“Suharto must be put on trial to prove whether he is guilty or not guilty,” said Budiardi, the mother of Gilang, who still weeps when she talks about her loss. “I cannot forgive him before he is put on trial.”

Gilang, whose full name was Leonardus Nugroho Iskandar, was a 20-year-old street singer who joined the student movement calling for Mr. Suharto’s ouster and who had been beaten and arrested several times before his disappearance.

His parents have petitioned the government to investigate the case but have received no response, his mother said. That lack of response has played out also on a national scale.

Four presidents have succeeded Mr. Suharto over the past decade but, facing the power of his money and his influential friends, none has pushed through a case against him.

Some people who say they are realists assert that no matter what the furor, this will never happen.

“The idea of putting former President Suharto on trial, which has been heard often lately, is now as unlikely as draining the oceans,” said the weekly newsmagazine Tempo in an editorial this week. “What is the point of discussing things that are unlikely to happen?”

Government leaders and high-ranking officials are expected to attend Mr. Suharto’s funeral at his mausoleum on a hilltop not far from here, where he will be buried with solemn Javanese ritual.

Those who suffered under his regime may be left with only their tears and their anger.

Winarsa, 69, was one of the first victims of Mr. Suharto’s rule, a schoolteacher who was imprisoned for 15 years in a series of camps. He was arrested in 1965, when Suharto seized power, at the start of an anti-communist purge that took at least 500,000 lives.

“All these people who are saying good things about Suharto don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said. “What I remember is that whoever had a different opinion on politics from Suharto would be killed or kidnapped.”

Three brothers and a cousin were killed in the purges, he said. He still carries the scars of beatings he received.

“As a human, no, I’m not angry,” he said, although he sounded angry. “But if you ask me to say a good word about Suharto, no, I won’t. For me he is not a good man.”

Indonesia's Suharto in critical condition [-Indonesia's Strongman did not rule past 90-year-old: a lesson for other Asian Strongmen]

Former Indonesian dictator Suharto lies on his hospital bed after undergoing a scan at Jakarta's Pertamina hospital on January 8. Suharto's health has improved slightly as Indonesian workers scurried to prepare for his possibly imminent burial. (AFP/The President Post/File/Yaumil Fadhil)

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The health of former president Suharto, Indonesia's strongman ruler for more than three decades, deteriorated further on Friday evening, a doctor said, and more family members rushed to the hospital where he is being treated.

Suharto, 86, was taken to Jakarta's Pertamina hospital a week ago suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems. His health worsened on Friday as doctors said he appeared to have a lung infection.

"His condition is worse, it is more critical than previously. We are trying to do the best we can," a member of the medical team treating Suharto told Reuters, asking not to be named.

The former general has been critically ill for several days, receiving blood transfusions and undergoing haemodialysis to drain excess fluid from his body.

"We are closely monitoring for a possible infection because there are preliminary signs of inflammation" in Suharto's lungs, Hadiarto Mangunnegoro, a lung specialist, told a news conference.

"We have given him treatment to prevent that, including giving him antibiotics and anti-inflammation medicine. Hopefully it will not happen. If it does, it will make things worse."

Suharto was forced to quit in 1998 in the face of mounting student protests, political chaos and economic crisis. He was charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds, but the government later dropped the case due to his poor health.

He and his family deny any wrongdoing.

Hutomo Mandala Putra, Suharto's youngest son who also faces graft charges and who served time in prison for ordering the murder of a judge, told reporters at the hospital on Friday that his father's condition had not improved.

"On behalf of our family, we would like to thank fellow countrymen who have prayed for his recovery. For those who did so, hopefully you will receive something good in return," he said. "The most important thing is that he gets better."

Suharto began his rise to power in 1965 by leading the military to put down what was officially termed an attempted communist coup. Up to 500,000 were killed in the anti-communist purge that followed.

Many human rights violations under Suharto's rule, in Aceh, Papua, East Timor and elsewhere, were linked to the armed forces.

On Friday a group of 20 people belonging to a solidarity group for victims of human right violations in the Suharto era gathered at Pertamina hospital bearing banners with the words "Put Soeharto on trial" and a huge bouquet wishing him well.

Most said that they wished for Suharto's recovery, but that humanity and justice were two different things.

"For now, we hope Suharto will recover soon," said Usman Hamid, head of human rights NGO Kontras.

"But in regards to his legal status, a thorough consideration needs to be made taking into account his services to this nation and crimes he committed in the past and the one with the authority to decide on that is the court."

Some Indonesians, though, look back with nostalgia to the Suharto era, when Indonesia was one of Asia's tiger economies, and refer to him fondly as the "Father of Development".

The sudden deterioration in his health last weekend prompted some senior politicians to call for legal proceedings against him to be dropped. But the attorney-general said on Monday his office would press ahead with a civil case.