JP\/20\/people<\/p>\n
checked -- JSR
\nReluctant corruption 'czar' warms to his job<\/p>\n
Eva C. Komandjaja
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
\"This is not my dream; I don't really want to be in this
\nposition if you'd like to know what I really think.\"<\/p>\n
These were Hendarman Supandji's own words when he was asked
\nabout how he felt being named as the new deputy attorney general
\nfor special crimes at the Attorney General's Office (AGO).<\/p>\n
His reply was unexpected, as most people would envy his job
\nsince it is high-profile and commands a great deal of respect,
\nwhich confers on its holder considerable power within the
\nbureaucracy.<\/p>\n
However, he felt the opposite; the first words he said in
\nreply to Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh were, \"Why was I
\nelected to such a demanding position. Have you chosen the right
\nperson?\"<\/p>\n
For him, being a prosecutor was a job -- not his real calling
\nin life -- adding that he was already happy with his old position
\nas secretary to the deputy attorney general for supervision.<\/p>\n
\"I thought my new position would be at the supervision
\ndepartment since that was what was stated in the previous
\npresidential decree signed by former president Megawati, but it
\nturned out the attorney general wanted me for this position
\ninstead,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Even though Hendarman thought the attorney general had made a
\nmistake, he appeared to be handling well the large-scale, alleged
\nlending scam at giant state-owned Bank Mandiri, only three weeks
\nafter his appointment.<\/p>\n
The AGO took less than a month to name suspects in the US$1.28
\nbillion banking scandal and many people praised Hendarman's hard
\nwork in his new position.<\/p>\n
He realized that many people had put faith in him to take on
\nunresolved cases at the AGO due to public demand to see justice
\ndone: Injustices had gone on in this country for so long, with
\nguilty people walking free or fleeing abroad.<\/p>\n
\"I know that Pak Anwar (Supreme Audit Agency chief Anwar
\nNasution) has invested high hopes in me to solve the Bank Mandiri
\ncase; I will do the best I can but that will not be easy as one
\nof our problems is lack of good human resources. However, I will
\nnot use that as an excuse,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Hendarman was recently appointed head of the interdepartmental
\nanticorruption team by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
\nmeaning that he has been entrusted to undertake the country's
\nmajor mission of eradicating corruption.<\/p>\n
With a clean track record and a humble, honest personality,
\nHendarman might well be regarded as the right person among all
\nthe possible candidates to take on the huge task.<\/p>\n
\"I have kept my promise to the President that I won't stop
\nfighting corruption and won't compromise on any kind of
\ncriminality. I don't offer any special 'access' that people might
\nenjoy,\" he said when receiving The Jakarta Post for an interview
\nat his office.<\/p>\n
Born in Klaten, a small town in Central Java, 58 years ago,
\nHendarman said that since the beginning he did not want to become
\na prosecutor, preferring to be a military officer instead.<\/p>\n
\"My parents encouraged me to take a degree in law since back
\nthen the situation was chaotic and nobody really enforced the
\nlaw. Besides, none of their sons and daughters had a law degree,
\neither, so they pushed me instead,\" Hendarman said.<\/p>\n
As a result of his parents' wishes he abandoned his mechanical
\nengineering studies at Brawijaya University, Malang, East Java,
\nto start studying law at Diponegoro University, Semarang, Central
\nJava.<\/p>\n
He began his career at the tender age of 25 in Balikpapan,
\nEast Kalimantan, and was later assigned to the Central Jakarta
\nProsecutor's Office for three years before moving to the
\nIntelligence Operation Center at the AGO.<\/p>\n
\"I wanted to quit this job so much several years ago but my
\nparents and teacher kept on pressing me to continue, saying that
\nit would be the best for me; looking at myself now I think they
\nwere right but this was not the kind of job I really wanted when
\nI was young,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In 1984 he was assigned to the drug department of the fraud
\ndivision (Botasupal) of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN)
\nfor only a year before returning to the AGO as head of
\ninvestigation for the deputy attorney general for intelligence.<\/p>\n
He later added that he preferred more the teaching and
\ndevelopment aspects and that he despised anything to do with
\ninterrogating people since he had experienced that when he worked
\nat the Central Jakarta Prosecutors Office in 1979 to 1981.<\/p>\n
However, since he did not have any other option at that time
\nhe simply made the best of his assignment.<\/p>\n
In 1990 he moved to Bangkok, Thailand, to fill a new position
\nas prosecutor attache to the Indonesian Embassy in Thailand for
\nfive years. He later returned to the AGO and worked in his dream
\njob as a teacher at the AGO training center before becoming a
\nchief prosecutor in Yogyakarta in 2002.<\/p>\n
Two years later he was appointed to his previous position as
\nsecretary to the deputy attorney general for supervision.<\/p>\n
Although he still did not like the job, he conceded that he
\nhad an aptitude for analyzing cases, especially those concerning
\ncorruption, and that he started to feel more comfortable in his
\nnew position.<\/p>\n
\"I can take a quick look at a case and see what is the main
\nproblem and how we might resolve it,\" Hendarman said.<\/p>\n
Even so, he said that he would take the position for only 18
\nmonths as he was 58 already and would have to retire soon.<\/p>\n
\"It's the best arrangement for me -- I don't think I would
\nagree if anybody asked me to continue in this position. For me,
\nthe position is nothing but a piece of paper, a presidential
\ndecree -- that's all,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp20people-1447899208",
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