Acceptance of corruption may foil drive

Acceptance of corruption may foil drive

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Without intending to dampen the spirit of anticorruption
crusaders and their fight against crooked politicians, a noted
lawyer asserted that the campaign not to vote for those figures
will likely have little impact.

"(The campaign) is a positive thing, but it'll probably have
little effect due to the culture of permissiveness toward
corruption and ambivalence about it in our society," Todung Mulya
Lubis told a seminar titled "Corruption and 'Black' Politicians"
held by the Center for Social Economic Studies (CSES) on
Thursday.

He explained that such permissiveness was shown in the
respectful treatment given to corruptors and the low number of
corruption cases brought to courts.

"Only here in our country a convicted corruptor who is still
on parole can chair the Indonesian Athletics Association," said
Todung, referring to Bob Hasan who was released last month after
serving two-thirds of his six-year sentence for misusing state
funds.

"The campaign's anticlimax was when Akbar's appeal was granted
by the Supreme Court. So don't be surprised if many crooked
politicians, listed or not, are still elected or reelected,"
Todung added.

Several non-governmental organizations, led by Indonesian
Corruption Watch (ICW), have appealed to the public not to vote
for unscrupulous politicians. They were supposed to publish a
list of such politicians before the campaign period started to
help the public make decisions during the upcoming general
elections.

The campaign period started on Thursday and will continue
until April 1. However, the list still has not materialized since
the organizations said they were still collecting names.

Todung's comments were fortified by a recent study by CSES
among 150 Jakartans, which found that only 26.8 percent of the
interviewed respondents would not vote for crooked politicians
although over 70 percent of them claimed that they supported the
campaign.

"Our public is so ambivalent. They know that those politicians
are unscrupulous but yet will still vote for them," he lamented.

He also said that it would take stricter law enforcement to
diminish such permissiveness and the pessimistic attitude within
the society.

"Freed corruptors and lenient sentences will only strengthen
the attitude. People won't hesitate to engage in corruption ...
too many corruption cases and practices of money politics within
political parties still remain below the surface," he asserted.

Nevertheless, Todung remained optimistic about the struggle,
affirming that "the campaign is indeed an excellent start of a
long campaign against crooked politicians".