Improper meddling?<\/p>\n
This is a final follow-up to attempts to get feedback on a
\ncomplaint about an official in the Medan Immigration Office who
\nextorted many millions of rupiah at a time (in premonetary crisis
\nvalue) from expatriates and Indonesians. Finally, on Dec. 26, I
\nreceived a letter from the Director General of Immigration Mr.
\nPranowo, who explained that following an investigation in July
\n1998, official X had been issued a strong reprimand and was named
\nImmigration Attache at the Indonesian Consulate General in Los
\nAngeles.<\/p>\n
What is disturbing (apart from the fact that official X seems
\nto have been more rewarded than disciplined for his malpractice)
\nis that Mr. Pranowo's letter to me included an admonition that by
\ncontinuing to follow up my complaint I went too far: \"You've gone
\ntoo far with your meddling in the established procedures of our
\nDirectorate.\" One can only marvel at this disingenuousness that
\nopenly characterizes a complaint about public corruption as
\n\"improper meddling in the Directorate's established procedures.\"<\/p>\n
But is this a subtle threat? If a foreign investor in
\nIndonesia files a corruption complaint and expects the complaint
\nto be followed up as promised, will he\/she then be warned that
\nthis is not proper? Does the State Minister for Investment Hamzah
\nHaz consider Mr. Pranowo's warning an acceptable response to an
\ninvestor's problem with a corrupt official? Must foreign
\ninvestors (and their expatriate staff) who are asked to make
\npayoffs keep silent? Is there nowhere we can safely report
\nproblems of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN)? On the one
\nhand, the government is soliciting foreign investment and
\npromising that they are dedicated to clean government; on the
\nother hand, its subordinate officials threaten those investors
\nlike myself who ask for help against corrupt officials. Will the
\nreal government of Indonesia please stand up?<\/p>\n
Because for five months there was no response to my many
\nrequests for feedback about this complaint, in November 1998 I
\nsent an e-mail to President Habibie requesting assistance from
\nhis office. Mr. Pranowo's response referred to this e-mail. Now
\nwe know that President Habibie or a designated staff member reads
\ne-mails and takes effective action on them. This is an
\nencouraging sign of the President's accessibility and
\nresponsiveness. I thank President Habibie for the follow-up from
\nhis office.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is no longer a collection of villages ruled by
\nfeudal chiefs. The feudal president has been replaced by a 20th
\ncentury well-educated technocrat who has lived in an open,
\nprogressive democratic country for a number of years. President
\nHabibie will not, we trust, countenance subordinates who misuse
\ntheir authority to intimidate or retaliate against those who
\nreport and follow up corruption. If President Habibie and General
\nWiranto are looking for the forces that are endangering their
\nadministration, they might want to look to persons within their
\nown government bureaucracy who resist reformation by protecting
\nthose guilty of KKN.<\/p>\n
I thank Mr. Pranowo for his letter, which at last has
\nconfirmed the outcome of our complaint: Official X had his hands
\nslapped and was sent on his merry way to L.A. Many Indonesian
\nreformers will appreciate the price the bureaucracy pays for such
\na failure in self-reform.<\/p>\n
DONNA K. WOODWARD<\/p>\n
Medan, North Sumatra<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/improper-meddling-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }