Tommy, dont you just love the guy!

The “government's handling” of US$10 million of "Tommy" Soeharto's money is the ultimate insult to the intelligence and sense of justice of the Indonesian people.

There is simply no justification for the government in 2004 and 2005 passing the money -- which had earlier been returned by a London branch of BNP Paribas -- straight back into Tommy's bank account.

Everybody knows the reputation of Tommy Soeharto. They know how he built his business empire largely by using, or rather abusing, the office of his father. Everybody knows that the nation, and successive administrations under four presidents since 1998, has been at pains to go after the money stolen by Soeharto and his children during the strongman's three-decade rule. And everybody knows that these efforts have been futile, leaving the Soeharto clan to continue enjoying their ill-gotten wealth virtually untouched.

Forget the mafia, ignore the Yakuza, the Soeharto family make them look like chickenshit!
Here was a rare chance for the government to at least keep $10 million of Tommy's money -- a piddling amount for him but enough to pay for schooling and textbooks for a significant number of Indonesian children.

The money could also have served as evidence to initiate an investigation into Tommy's business dealings. Had the government bothered to follow the trail of money in 2004, it's investigators would have reached London then, rather than now, almost three years later.

Instead of this, according to his own account, as soon as the money from BNP Paribas was transferred to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' account in 2004, the government fuckwits decided that the money was clean and had no connection to any pending corruption cases against Tommy.

Once this was established, the money was transferred to Tommy's account. All of this took place while Tommy was serving time for the murder of a senior judge who was hearing his corruption case.

This is simply an unbelievable story.

At the very least, BNP Paribas had the decency to ask the government about the origins of Tommy's money before transferring it to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, rather than straight to Tommy's bank account. For the government to let Tommy off the hook when it had the chance to nail him is laughable -- but it is also tragic.

With most people living on less than US$ 2 per day, the callousness and downright criminality of this action should be cause for the people to vote these fuckers out off office, the only problem is, the government which would then be elected would be no better than the current power base!