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