A tough task ahead
A tough task ahead
Even though only on a caretaker basis -- at least for the time
being -- the government's decision to replace scandal-riddled
Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib with his deputy Ismudjoko
provides President B.J. Habibie an excellent opportunity to begin
cleaning up the Attorney General's Office.
No doubt, this was also on the minds of some of the country's
most prominent former attorneys, who on Thursday visited the
Attorney General's Office to call for tougher measures to be
taken against Ghalib and to express their concern over the
tarnished image of the country's highest law-enforcement
institution. As a bulwark of justice, the Attorney General's
Office must be run by clean and competent people, as former
attorney general Soegih Arto said on Thursday.
There is no denying the validity of Soegih's statement. The
sad truth is, however, that over the past 30 years of the New
Order regime, the Attorney General's Office never enjoyed a
reputation for impartiality, fairness and justice among the
public. However, this unfortunate image had more to do with the
judiciary's political dependence on the executive branch rather
than dishonesty on the part of its personnel.
In any case, never in the history of this powerful institution
has the public reputation of the Attorney General's Office been
as low as it is now. How this office plunged into the depths of
disrepute is well-known by now. The Indonesian Corruption Watch
released copies of bank transfers amounting to billions of rupiah
to the personal account of Andi M. Ghalib, making it seem for all
the world that the attorney general was abusing his office for
personal gain.
Though Ghalib has maintained the transfers were donations from
businesspeople to the Indonesian Wrestling Association, which he
chairs -- a claim which has been corroborated by a number of the
sports officials concerned -- the fact is that these claimed
donations were in Ghalib's personal account. Moreover, some of
the money came from two businessmen who not long ago had been
questioned by Ghalib's office for possible violations of banking
laws. Both of these businessmen's cases have apparently been
"forgotten", even though similar cases are being pursued. To
further fuel the suspicions of malfeasance, the concerned
businessmen owe huge debts to the state.
Amid all this, President Habibie, who has the power to appoint
and fire attorney generals, appeared reluctant to dismiss or even
suspend Andi M. Ghalib from office. Habibie took the step of
suspending Ghalib only after pressure for him to take action
mounted. However, instead of abiding by the law and replacing
Ghalib with one of his deputies, the President announced
Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Gen.
(ret) Feisal Tanjung would replace Ghalib, causing further public
outcry.
While public accountants have been assigned to audit Ghalib's
bank accounts, both experts and the public remain skeptical about
the seriousness with which these corruption charges are being
taken, particularly in light of the fact that the government has
failed to assign specialized fraud auditors to the investigation.
Furthermore, Bank Indonesia will not open Ghalib's bank accounts
to auditors unless police formally name him a suspect in the
investigation.
What this whole sorry affair has exposed is the gigantic task
confronting the next administration before it can even begin to
think of restructuring the social, economic and legal
foundations on which Indonesia's new civil society must be built.
To achieve this, the presence of a clean, fair, impartial and
independent judiciary is an absolute requirement. It is
unfortunate that instead of doing what it could to move this long
process forward during the short time it had at its disposal, the
Habibie administration has made the task that much more
difficult.