International Bad Boys Forced to Face the Fire
May 3 -- The silver spoon is being slowly wrenched out of his mouth and the famous Rolls Royce is now gathering dust in a Jakarta garage, but Tommy Suharto hasn't lost the bravura that has galled — and fascinated — Indonesians for years.
After more than a year on the run, the youngest and favorite son of Indonesia's former strongman, Suharto, is finally facing justice on several charges — including those relating to the murder of a Supreme Court judge — and Indonesians can't quite get enough of it.
Once the jet-set, womanizing, race car-driving, business-dealing bad boy of the vast Asian archipelago nation, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra Suharto today resides in a Jakarta prison cell while the trial unfolds amid tight security and heightened media interest in a huge Jakarta exhibition hall.
The lead-up, the rumors and the allegations surrounding Indonesia's one-time crown prince has so captivated the nation, that Suharto's trial had to be moved from the Central Jakarta District Court earlier this year to the exhibition hall to accommodate the media, security personnel and gaping spectators.
And if his initial court appearances are anything to go by, Suharto may be in a stew, but his playboy image is intact. In Javanese print silk shirts, the 39-year-old is given to grinning and waving audaciously at reporters, many of whom have filed steamy copy on his much-publicized five-hour conjugal visits with his glamorous wife.
Suharto's story is a Shakespearean scale saga of family drama, greed, corruption, and the apparent immunity that spoiled brats of powerful daddies believe they enjoy.
But it's hard to associate Suharto with any Hamlet-like ruminations on the human condition. His conduct seems more in keeping with the early exploits of Prince Hal, the dishonorable tavern-frequenting, thief-befriending young man who would eventually become King Henry V.
Troubled Princes Across the World
Political systems may have changed since the 16th century, but even today, there is no shortage of Prince Hal-like characters across the world.
In countries enjoying a wide range of political systems — from despotic dictators to democratically elected, but crony-appointing leaders — children of heads of state have stretched and flouted the rules of the game for their own nefarious ends.
In the Balkans, millions of Serbs and Bosnians swap rumors on the whereabouts of Marko Milosevic, the smuggled goods-dealing, nightclub-frequenting, allegedly coke-snorting youngest son of Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
French eyebrows arch scalp high when the name Jean Christophe Mitterand pops up in conversations as the former French president Francois Mitterand's son battles probes into his alleged illegal arms trafficking.
