Next, they will be going after the wealth that the former tyrants, their relatives and friends plundered during their rule.

If the Indonesian experience after its uprising in 1998 is anything to go by, Egypt and Tunisia will be mistaken to think that dealing with the definite past is easier than dealing with the blurry future.

Indonesia was confronted with this dilemma in the early years after the student-led people power movement that ended three decades of Soeharto dictatorship in 1998. Indonesia probably did just enough in trying to deal with the past before it gave up and focused on what lay ahead.

Soeharto was never brought to trial, his henchmen in the military who were responsible for many atrocities escaped with impunity, and the state never recovered a cent of the wealth his relatives and cronies amassed during the three decades of his rule.

Many Soeharto loyalists remain in power, some after turning their backs on him, but many others continue to support him. Golkar, his political machine, has remained in the top two parties in all the three general elections since 1999.

Soeharto never left Indonesia. He appeared in court once to convince judges he was too mentally ill to understand the charges. Soeharto won the battle and was largely left alone in his reclusive house in Menteng, Central Jakarta, until he died in 2008.

Soeharto lost a historic opportunity to come clean by not facing up to the charges in court. President Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000 proposed that if Soeharto agreed to appear in court, he would issue an amnesty the day after the court found him guilty.

The nation would have been more forgiving and even recognized his place in history if he had taken up the offer. Instead, he died in public disgrace. It was Soeharto’s loss, but Indonesia has moved on without him.

It was the same story with the billions of rupiah in state wealth plundered by his children and cronies through massive corruption that brought Indonesia to the brink of economic collapse in 1998. His six children who controlled large and diversified conglomerates stayed put in Indonesia, keeping a low profile as they continued to control their businesses.

There were some talks about recovering assets from them, but in the end the government decided, wisely in retrospect, that it wasn’t worth the effort and that more attention should be given instead to creating new wealth for the economy.

While Soeharto, his children and his henchmen escaped justice, the new Indonesia had, at the very least, defused any threat of them making a comeback to do more harm.

Once out of power, Soeharto was rapidly aging and his children had been cut off from the business privileges they once enjoyed. The military went through massive reforms and is now effectively under civilian control.

Going back to the analogy of checking the rear view mirror, Indonesia did enough checking to make sure its past remained in the past, and that those who had caused so much destruction to the nation would no longer catch up and return to do more damage.

Thirteen years after the uprising, Indonesia has come a long way to become the democracy it is today — a democracy that is delivering the economic goods as well. While it still has some way to go, the country reached this point by focusing mainly on its present and future challenges.

Egypt and Tunisia have bright futures ahead of them. They too should not let the past bog them down or prevent them from pursuing their more important agenda.

The writer is senior editor of The Jakarta Post and a visiting fellow at the East West Center office in Washington DC.

Popular

Java airports grounded by low demand, poor planning

Japan to export used destroyers to Philippines to deter China

Trump says Indonesia to face 19 percent tariff under trade deal