The antigraft law<\/p>\n
The government seems to be very boastful about the new
\nanticorruption law approved by the House of Representatives last
\nweek. By sponsoring the bill, B.J. Habibie's administration must
\nhave wanted to demonstrate its seriousness in the anticorruption
\ndrive, which has actually been going on for almost three decades.<\/p>\n
Learning from the failure of the same campaign supposedly
\ncarried out by the Soeharto regime, the new law stipulates that a
\ndeath sentence will be handed down to those found to have
\ncommitted corruption more than once, to those involved in major
\nembezzlement cases and to those who take advantage of situations
\nduring national disasters, a state of emergency or economic
\ncrises. It also welcomes public participation in the drive.<\/p>\n
All the stipulations sound powerful enough to put an end to
\ncorruption, which has been gnawing at the government since the
\nearly years of Soeharto's corrupt and despotic rule. Habibie
\nmight have been told that Soeharto's anticorruption campaign was
\nneither serious nor well-planned and had made corruption grow at
\nhigh speed.<\/p>\n
The regime of former president Soeharto, whom Habibie said was
\nhis teacher, was known throughout the world as one of the most
\ncorrupt. Foreign corruption watchers compared it to those of
\nformer Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, the former shah of
\nIran and Zairean tyrant Mobutu. God was so judgmatic that all of
\nthem died in disgrace.<\/p>\n
Today, even with an effective concept, this nation will need
\nyears before it can make a good start on the anticorruption
\ndrive. Habibie, who is campaigning for reelection, seemed to
\nunderstand this need and by making the law wanted to convince the
\npopulace that he is also the right leader to lead the crusade.<\/p>\n
And the rubber-stamp House of Representatives, by approving
\nthe government-sponsored bill, wanted to demonstrate itself as no
\nless a serious fighter for clean governance.<\/p>\n
In this era of social change and reform, the House wishes to
\nbe remembered as the initial infrastructure for democracy, at
\nleast as good as any future House.<\/p>\n
Many people might be optimistic about the law. There are some
\nwho believe the government's seriousness and believe that with
\nthe law, the antigraft drive will be triumphantly successful.
\nPerhaps these people are hoping to help the authorities build new
\nprisons for the innumerable number of people to be convicted of
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n
But thinking people believe the law's invitation to the people
\nto take part in the anticorruption campaign will hardly have a
\npositive response because of past trauma. In this country,
\nreporting an alleged corruption case to the authorities has
\nalways been equivalent to self-inflicted pain, because it is hard
\nto identify who is corrupt and who is not among law-enforcing
\nofficers and officials of judicial bodies.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Habibie has never tried to convince anybody that he
\nhas the mentality to create clean governance. He has long been
\npart of the corrupt regime. And the new law was passed against
\nthe backdrop of his lack of seriousness to investigate the
\nalleged corruption cases of his predecessor, Soeharto, and his
\nill-fated attorney general Andi Mohammad Ghalib.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-antigraft-law-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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