Govt campaign against corruption 'half-hearted'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government's move to probe into high level
\ncorruption cases in the country is a half-hearted effort merely
\nto refine its image, an American expert on Indonesia's political
\neconomy said here Monday.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey A. Winters, an associate professor at the Northwestern
\nUniversity in Illinois, expressed his skepticism over the
\npolitical will of the government to investigate corruptions
\ninvolving the high-ups.<\/p>\n
\"I see all this as cosmetics,\" he told reporters after a
\ndiscussion on corruption.<\/p>\n
\"This government is an extension of the New Order regime,
\nclearly they must try to convince people that they aren't part of
\nthe old crowds,\" he said, citing the 32-year regime of Soeharto,
\nwho resigned from the presidency in May.<\/p>\n
Winters said sincere investigation into the corruption
\nallegations might backfire on many of the incumbent government
\nofficials because they had also abused their powers to gain
\nwealth in the past.<\/p>\n
He cited the recent government's move led by Attorney General
\nAndi Muhammad Ghalib and the Coordinating Minister for
\nDevelopment Supervision Hartarto Sastrosoenarto to probe into
\nSoeharto's wealth as inconclusive.<\/p>\n
He said the authorities lacked the political will to continue
\ntheir inquiry not because they feared the former president but
\nbecause many senior officials could be dragged down by the
\ninvestigation's result.<\/p>\n
\"If there's a momentum, it will snowball on them. They are all
\ngoing to get hit,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In June last year, Winters disclosed that a third of the World
\nBank's loans to Indonesia had been siphoned off by the
\nbureaucrats in the country. The allegation was immediately denied
\nby the bank's officials then.<\/p>\n
However, the World Bank finally admitted a few weeks ago that
\nsome of its loan funds had leaked and disappeared into the pokets
\nof officials. The confirmation was made after the Asian Wall
\nStreet Journal published in August the World Bank's internal
\nmemorandum on the incidence of graft in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
At the discussion here on Monday, Winters criticized some of
\nthe incumbent ministers who had prospered while they were in
\noffice during the Soeharto era but who are now standing out as
\ncorruption fighters.<\/p>\n
These included the Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance
\nand Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita, who recently initiated the
\nestablishment of a fact-finding team to investigate the World
\nBank's funds that had allegedly been siphoned off, he said.<\/p>\n
Ginandjar, Winters said, had a dubious past to be a promoter
\nof an anti-corruption movement because he was currently under
\nallegations of collusion with mining company, PT Freeport
\nIndonesia copper mining company in Irian Jaya, during his tenure
\nas the mines and energy minister in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n
Until he resolves this issue and comes out clean, \"it's not
\nproper for him to be the pioneer of anti corruption\", he said.<\/p>\n
\"How can we trust those who have been doing the crime. It's
\nlike appointing the head of the Gambino crime family in the U.S.
\nto eliminate mafia,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Winters said the World Bank largely contributed to the loss
\nfunds in Indonesia and in other developing countries.<\/p>\n
They had turned a blind eye towards irregular uses of their
\nfunds by their sovereign clients, he said.<\/p>\n
\"The relationships between the Bank and its government clients
\nhave always been very cosy and secretive,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The World Bank has claimed to bear no responsible over the use
\nof the funds, although its Articles of Agreement stated that the
\nbank must ensure that its funds be used properly by the sovereign
\nclients for the intended projects, he said.<\/p>\n
Winter asserted that the World Bank should, therefore, share
\nthe responsibility over the lost funds. If the allegations were
\nproven true, Indonesia should not repay the embezzled portion of
\nthe loans. The bank should allow the Indonesian government to
\nrenegotiate the amount of debts it should repay.<\/p>\n
Winters estimated that a total of US$30 billion had been
\nchanneled by the World Bank to finance projects in Indonesia
\nsince the 1960s. (das)<\/p>",
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