A lesson from Akbar

Soeryo Winoto, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who is also the chairman of the Golkar Party, to three years in jail -- a year less than what prosecutors demanded -- for corruption two weeks ago.

The verdict is in fact a national tragedy.

People expected that the verdict would have dealt a harsh blow to the DPR, Golkar and Akbar as a person. But this has not happened. The House is finding it difficult to make Akbar step down from his seat, leaving a number of factions to merely appeal to him to leave the post.

Legally, there is no way to make Akbar vacate his House seat, despite the court verdict.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, which dominates the House with its 153 members, has failed to show more vigor in supporting moves to unseat Akbar from the speaker's chair. Meanwhile, PDI Perjuangan's initiative -- supported by the National Awakening Party (PKB) -- to arrange a petition against Akbar has been considered a sham by observers. In such a condition the House is well on its way to a critical point where people's trust in it is further eroding.

Akbar is preparing an appeal to the high court, meaning that the verdict against him is too weak legally to send him to jail or to ban him from traveling abroad. According to Law No. 4/1999, the court verdict has yet to be final and binding.

The law says that the House speaker will be dishonorably dismissed if the court issues a final and binding verdict against him. Meanwhile, the Golkar Party, notorious for securing former president Soeharto's long tenure, is not embarrassed to have a convicted leader. The party officials have demonstrated their diehard support to retain Akbar. It was somewhat surprising to hear statements from Golkar officials calling Akbar's case an accident.

Banners supporting Akbar fly in many places around town.

The political party has clearly seen the case only from a political view, insisting that the legal process against Akbar is merely part of a scenario to eliminate him and to vandalize the party's image. No wonder deputy Golkar chairman Fahmi Idris said that efforts to remove Akbar from his seat as DPR speaker could undermine political stability in the country. He did not elaborate further on that statement.

Support for Akbar from Golkar members is not surprising as many Golkar members still rely on Akbar for their fate.

So while the House has neither the guts nor the will to unseat Akbar, Golkar members have also been persistent to retain Akbar. Only Akbar can make this decision. But all the signs indicate that Akbar has no intention to quit the DPR's top post.

Braving escalating demands for him to step down as House speaker, Akbar left for Hanoi, Vietnam to lead the Indonesian legislators' delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Organization conference.

He said he saw no reason to cancel the trip or to restrict his travels abroad, because "I haven't accepted the court's verdict and have filed for an appeal".

Akbar could have demonstrated his statesmanship to his party members and supporters by relinquishing his seats both at the House and at Golkar, and tell supporters to accept the reality gallantly, while awaiting the high court's response to his appeal.

However, this has not happened and is unlikely to happen. This clearly indicates that ethics and morality are no longer relevant in our society.

The fact that Akbar is appealing and that the court verdict has yet to become final and binding is true. But legal proceedings, which led to the court's conclusion that Akbar is guilty of embezzling Rp 40 billion in state funds, cannot be taken for granted.

When, for many people money is so hard to come by but necessary for their survival, an amount, such as Rp 40 billion -- which the court said was swindled by a group of people, including Akbar -- is a tremendous and unimaginable amount.

The verdict has raised hopes that Akbar deserves the jail sentence handed down to him. Far from being a mere legal issue, it is now one that affects the people's sense of justice, morality and social responsibility of those involved in the graft. It is a blatant reality that Akbar and his supporters have only been leaning on legal aspects, while ignoring morality and lacking shame.

By constantly referring to mere legalities, Akbar and Golkar are obviously trying to teach the public "how to respect the law". This seems to be how Akbar and his supporters translate the outdated jargon that Indonesia is a country that respects the law (negara hukum).

For the international community, this is no longer relevant for Indonesia -- one of the world's most corrupt countries. The undeniable reality is the unresolved human rights violations, the chaotic legal system and corrupt officials.

Now the world will be even more surprised upon learning that a politician convicted of embezzlement can continue to lead a respected and honored institution such as the House of Representatives.

Once again, the ball is in Akbar's hands. He has, however, asserted his image as a typical Indonesian leader, who will fight to the end to secure his position and reputation as a leader, but not as a human who respects the common sense of justice and morality.

By defying this public sense of justice, Akbar is also denying social responsibility as one of the country's top leaders.

Akbar and Golkar may think that what they are doing is part of their strong commitment to uphold the law. But deep in the public's mind what is happening is just plain opposition to decency.

In the end, history will record that morality, the people's sense of justice, decency and social responsibility have been violated by one of the country's leaders in the name of the law.