NU, Muhammadiyah form national anticorruption movement<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan and
\nWahyoe Boediwardhana
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta\/Denpasar<\/p>\n
Frustrated with the government's lackluster anticorruption
\nmeasures, the country's two largest Muslim organizations have
\njoined hands to fight corruption.<\/p>\n
Nadhlatul Ulama (NU), which estimates membership at 40
\nmillion, and Muhammadiyah, with around 30 million members, signed
\na Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Wednesday to initiate a
\nnational anticorruption movement.<\/p>\n
The MOU, facilitated by non-governmental organization the
\nPartnership for Governance Reform, was signed by NU chairman
\nHasyim Muzadi, Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii Maarif and
\nPartnership executive director H.S. Dillon.<\/p>\n
"With the MOU, we want all NU members, as well as the people
\nof this country, to raise awareness of the anticorruption
\nmovement. If many people back the movement, we hope this will
\nencourage law enforcers to crack down on corrupters," Hasyim
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Under the three-year MOU, NU and Muhammadiyah will develop an
\nIslamic interpretation of anticorruption and publish leadership
\nguidelines to promote good governance.<\/p>\n
The two are also to carry out a national campaign on
\nanticorruption, and implement a modern management system at their
\norganizations based on the principles of accountability,
\ntransparency, integrity, participation and justice.<\/p>\n
Hasyim said the MOU was a response to people's frustration
\nwith the present anticorruption measures taken by the government.<\/p>\n
According to Hasyim, NU will also launch a public campaign
\nurging people not to vote for leaders that have a history of
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n
He also said that each and every NU and Muhammadiyah member
\nwould be punished if they were involved in corrupt practices.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Syafii said the anticorruption movement would be
\nbroadened to include other, non-Islam organizations, so that it
\nwould truly become a national movement.<\/p>\n
"We really want to trigger nationwide anger against
\ncorruption, at all levels, for bringing about poverty," he said.<\/p>\n
He said corruption was a serious crime worse than theft, thus
\nthe punishment against corruption should be stiffer.<\/p>\n
He expected the government to learn from China, which punishes
\nthose found guilty of corruption with death sentences.<\/p>\n
Teten Masduki of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and
\nscholar Franz Magnis Suseno welcomed the anticorruption MOU.<\/p>\n
Teten called on NU leaders, for example, to start rejecting
\nany unclear donations to their schools and to stop giving
\n"honorariums" to government officials.<\/p>\n
But former president Abdurrahman Wahid expressed doubt that
\nthe coalition between Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah would
\nsucceed in eradicating the widespread corruption in the country.<\/p>\n
"The cooperation between NU and Muhammadiyah is quite good.
\nHowever, frankly speaking, I am not very convinced that they have
\nenough courage to totally eradicate corruption, because this
\nproblem is created by the government," he said before hundreds of
\nNU followers.<\/p>\n
Indonesia ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world,
\nindicating that the government has not done much to eradicate
\ncorruption since 1998, when the people ousted the corrupt
\nSoeharto regime and called for reform.<\/p>\n
The most obvious example is House speaker Akbar Tandjung, who
\nretains his post, even though he has been convicted of
\ncorruption. He is appealing the verdict and in the meantime, has
\njoined the presidential race.<\/p>\n
The government's ambivalence in the fight against corruption
\nis also indicated in its reluctance to set up a powerful
\nAntiCorruption Commission (KPK) as mandated by the 2002
\nAnticorruption Law.<\/p>\n
The KPK is to take over responsibilities of the police and the
\nAttorney General's Office in handling big corruption cases.<\/p>\n
The public opinion is that corruption has generally become
\nworse, as during the Soeharto regime, only those in the upper
\nechelon were corrupt, but now, corruption has spread down the
\nranks to even the lowest civil service official.<\/p>",
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