Action against corruption
Action against corruption
Suara Pembaruan of Wednesday, Oct. 25, 1995 reported that a meeting to intensify and coordinate fighting corruption, attended by all inspectors general, was held at the Attorney General's Office.
This really is good news and it is about time that this was done. Is it really difficult to fight corruption? Some find that the existing anti-corruption law gives too much protection to an accused corruptor based on the principle or presumption of innocence. The prosecution, as it is now, has to prove that an accused is corrupt. I heard that in Malaysia they follow the principle of presumption of corruption. Based on this principle the accused should prove that he is innocent.
Several times I have tried to point out that detection is not very difficult. Just open your eyes and ears and you will see and hear. This is like the advice of the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, in his explanation on the formless organization case.
Just look around at the wealth some officials and former officials have accumulated. Government officials' salaries are no secrets and very transparent. When we compare the wealth they have accumulated and their rightful income, then you start asking how all this is possible. The houses they own, the number of cars at their disposal and the fat bank account in their names are easy to trace because all this show of wealth can be seen with the naked eyes.
Perhaps this case is a dilemma for the government because too many officials and former officials are involved. Strangely enough, corruption is conducted by people who have enough money and enough of everything, including power.
The President, in his State Address, said: "Such a large apparatus definitely cannot be free of shortcomings, errors and malpractice. One cannot deny that there is corruption and abuse of power that will be definitely dealt with according to the law."
The world is really starting to fight corruption. We read of concrete and courageous steps taken by governments all over the world. A former president is arrested, a vice president is accused and flees his country, a prime minister is arrested, a secretary-general of a big international organization is relieved from his post, a minister of finance is suspected. All these are, alas, outside Indonesia.
According to The Jakarta Post of March 17, 1995, the Indonesian government has, so far, recovered only 33 billion rupiah (US$15 million) out of 1.1 trillion rupiah of embezzled state money during the 1994/1995 fiscal year. The figure of 1.1 trillion is the result of investigating 212 cases. Most corruption cases occurred in the Department of Home Affairs (106 cases), followed by Department of Cooperatives (62 cases) and the next is Bank Indonesia (59 cases).
If I am not mistaken, there was once a Presidential Decree requiring all officials to regularly declare their wealth and its increase/decrease. It should be done on a yearly basis. If this decree still exists and is carried out according to the letter, then I think we can catch plenty of suspects. The political will is there, the top executive has given several warnings and the anti-corruption law is there, so what are we waiting for.
We do not need demonstrators shouting "fight corruption" to start fighting corruption, graft, bribes, unlawful collection etc. These cases are mighty weapons for communism, to be used against the government using forms difficult to detect.
In conclusion, this meeting should be followed by concrete steps and actions and I sincerely hope we will see, in the not too distant future, corruptors arrested and convicted.
SOEGIH ARTO
Jakarta