The irony is delicious. Within days of the Supreme Court ordering Time magazine to pay US$106 million for damaging Suharto’s good name, the UN and World Bank named him as the world’s top corruptor and established the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) initiative to help the Indonesian Government to track down his assets.

Joel Hellman, the World Bank’s chief governance advisor for East Asia and the Pacific, confirms what most Indonesians (and Time magazine) already know: “billions of dollars” have been stolen.

The Attorney-General, Hendarman Supandji, has confirmed that he will “take action”. It will be interesting to see whether this translates into the Government accepting the World Bank/UN offer of assistance.

It could not be simpler: if the Government accepts, the StAR team will institute legal co-operation with those countries the World Bank/UN think (i.e. know) Suharto has assets stashed. The World Bank is notoriously good at hunting down well-hidden bank accounts and no doubt has the means to “encourage” the various banking institutions to co-operate.

It wouldn’t be the first time that efforts have been made to recover Suharto’s ill-gotten wealth. Within three months of the fall of Suharto, the new president, Habibie ordered an investigation into Suharto’s wealth. The Attorney-General discovered foundations, 72 bank accounts and 400,000 hectares of land holdings. But Habibie terminated the investigation. The reason he gave: no evidence. The case was re-opened (and abandoned) when Abdurrahman Wahid became president.

Nine years after Suharto walked out of the presidential palace, the Indonesian Government is yet to recover one cent. In that time, the Philippines have recovered money stolen by not one but two former presidents! Suharto remains the only (living) corruptor on the World Bank/UN top-ten list that is still untried.

To find out why, you need look no further than the current government, controlled by Suharto’s Golkar Party. Suharto could not have possibly pillaged Indonesia so effectively without help. Lift the lid on Suharto and there’s no knowing how many Golkar cockroaches will scurry out. It’s not surprising that Suharto is still sitting smug in his Menteng mansion.

But this time it’s different. All the Government has to do is say the word. StAR will do the rest. It’s that easy. Actually, the Government has no choice. It can hardly say no and maintain any integrity.