AGO's failures in graft war raise doubts as to commitment<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Many people have serious doubts, to say the least, about the
\ncommitment of the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to fighting the
\ncountry's out-of-control corruption.<\/p>\n
These doubts will only have been reinforced by the latest
\ndebacle in the flagging war against graft, this time involving
\nbig-time corruptor Samadikun Hartono.<\/p>\n
The case, which has been making headlines for the past few
\nweeks, started after the Supreme Court sentenced Samadikun in May
\nto four years behind bars for embezzling Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200
\nmillion) in Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds.<\/p>\n
Claiming they had yet to obtain a copy of the verdict,
\nprosecutors remained reluctant to execute the verdict directly
\nthroughout June.<\/p>\n
Inexplicably, it was only in early July that prosecutors
\nfinally started to work on executing the verdict. Unlike in the
\ncase of run-of-the-mill street criminals, where the execution of
\nverdicts is often marked by heavy-handedness and violence, the
\nprosecutors instead chose to treat Samadikun with kid gloves,
\nsending him a letter politely asking him to show up in the
\nCentral Jakarta District Court for execution of the verdict, if
\nhe did not mind.<\/p>\n
Samadikun, however, did mind, and failed to turn up for his
\nappointment with the jailers.<\/p>\n
A full one week later, the seemingly unperturbed prosecutors
\nfinally announced that they would use force to put Samadikun
\nbehind bars. Accompanied by security officers, prosecutors came
\nto Samadikun's house in Menteng, Central Jakarta, only to find it
\nempty.<\/p>\n
The wily Samadikun had absconded, just as many predicted he
\nwould.<\/p>\n
Samadikun is only one of many convicted pillagers and
\nplunderers who have managed to escape their just deserts. Earlier
\nthis year, prosecutors also failed to jail convicted corruptor
\nSetiawan Harjono, who was sentenced to five years for the misuse
\nof Rp 550 billion ($67 million) in BLBI funds. Another big-time
\ncorruptor, David Nusa Wijaya, who should have counted himself
\nmiraculously blessed to only get a measly one year in jail for
\nBLBI graft involving Rp 1.27 trillion, also managed, or was
\npermitted, to abscond this year before judgment could be served
\non him -- whereabouts currently unknown.<\/p>\n
The Attorney General's Office has never once apologized for
\nits failure to execute court verdicts and put the bloodsuckers
\nwhere they belong.<\/p>\n
Achmad Ali, a professor with the Hasanuddin University law
\nschool, said that the excuses trotted forth by prosecutors for
\nnot directly serving court verdicts on corruptors was proof
\npositive of the half-hearted commitment to law enforcement in
\nthis country, and how the law could be hijacked by those with
\nmoney.<\/p>\n
He criticized law enforcers for being \"too legalistic\" as they
\npersistently hid behind legal procedures, instead of adhering to
\nthe substance of the law.<\/p>\n
\"Law enforcers mistakenly think that legal certainty means
\nadhering to the legislative provisions blindly,\" Ali said, adding
\nthat law enforcers could easily manipulate poorly worded and
\ndrafted legislation in the interests of their probable
\nbenefactors: the corruptors.<\/p>\n
The law, he asserted, is not the same as legislation because
\nlaw enforcement without morality is merely \"law enforcement
\nwithout soul.\"<\/p>\n
Ali once again pointed out what the public is all too well
\naware of: a legal institution can never produce justice if it is
\nled by officials who are up to their necks in corruption
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
\"A dirty broom won't make the floor clean. In fact, it will
\nmake it even dirtier,\" he remarked.<\/p>",
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