Civil suits put brutal Suharto era and his children back in public eye

Since the downfall of their strongman father 13 years ago next month, the adult children of the late Indonesian dictator Suharto have studiously avoided the public spotlight.

And with good reason: Suharto himself never appeared in a court to face charges of embezzling billions of dollars during his corrupt and authoritarian regime, so why would his children willingly risk public wrath in today's democratic Indonesia by reminding everyone that they remain extremely wealthy?

But there are exceptions to every rule. Last Friday, the face of Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, the oldest of Suharto's six children, was plastered across television screens and the front pages of newspapers after she won a US$78 million civil lawsuit against a former business partner in a media company. Two days earlier, a separate court in Jakarta heard testimony in a civil suit brought by Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo 'Tommy' Mandala Putra, who is suing state-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia's in-flight magazine for daring to mention in a travel article that he is a convicted murderer.

The simultaneous return of two Suhartos to the spotlight raised eyebrows. 'They are not good businesspeople - that's another point to make about the Suharto family - but they kept at it despite the fall from power,' said one long-time Indonesia political observer who asked not to be named. 'They have tried to manipulate the legal system to get back things that they thought were theirs.'

Rukmana, popularly known as 'Tutut', was Indonesia's 115th-richest person last year, according to Globe Asia magazine's annual survey, with an estimated worth of US$95 million. Oldest son Bambang Trihatmodjo was ranked 94th, with US$131 million, and Tommy Suharto was 42nd, with US$365 million.

Tommy Suharto's US$2.9 million lawsuit against Garuda is more about anger and lost face than any business dispute, as he is undoubtedly a convicted murder, for ordering the 2001 gangland-style drive-by shooting of a Supreme Court judge who upheld a corruption conviction against him. The fact that the airline mentioned it in a story about a Bali holiday resort owned by the youngest Suharto was the grounds for the lawsuit.

But Tommy Suharto has been battling the Indonesian government for years, both within the country and abroad, over hundreds of millions of dollars he is alleged to owe the state for failed business ventures, including a defunct national carmaker. To date, he has not returned a cent.