AGO's failures in graft war raise doubts as to commitment
AGO's failures in graft war raise doubts as to commitment
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Many people have serious doubts, to say the least, about the
commitment of the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to fighting the
country's out-of-control corruption.
These doubts will only have been reinforced by the latest
debacle in the flagging war against graft, this time involving
big-time corruptor Samadikun Hartono.
The case, which has been making headlines for the past few
weeks, started after the Supreme Court sentenced Samadikun in May
to four years behind bars for embezzling Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200
million) in Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds.
Claiming they had yet to obtain a copy of the verdict,
prosecutors remained reluctant to execute the verdict directly
throughout June.
Inexplicably, it was only in early July that prosecutors
finally started to work on executing the verdict. Unlike in the
case of run-of-the-mill street criminals, where the execution of
verdicts is often marked by heavy-handedness and violence, the
prosecutors instead chose to treat Samadikun with kid gloves,
sending him a letter politely asking him to show up in the
Central Jakarta District Court for execution of the verdict, if
he did not mind.
Samadikun, however, did mind, and failed to turn up for his
appointment with the jailers.
A full one week later, the seemingly unperturbed prosecutors
finally announced that they would use force to put Samadikun
behind bars. Accompanied by security officers, prosecutors came
to Samadikun's house in Menteng, Central Jakarta, only to find it
empty.
The wily Samadikun had absconded, just as many predicted he
would.
Samadikun is only one of many convicted pillagers and
plunderers who have managed to escape their just deserts. Earlier
this year, prosecutors also failed to jail convicted corruptor
Setiawan Harjono, who was sentenced to five years for the misuse
of Rp 550 billion ($67 million) in BLBI funds. Another big-time
corruptor, David Nusa Wijaya, who should have counted himself
miraculously blessed to only get a measly one year in jail for
BLBI graft involving Rp 1.27 trillion, also managed, or was
permitted, to abscond this year before judgment could be served
on him -- whereabouts currently unknown.
The Attorney General's Office has never once apologized for
its failure to execute court verdicts and put the bloodsuckers
where they belong.
Achmad Ali, a professor with the Hasanuddin University law
school, said that the excuses trotted forth by prosecutors for
not directly serving court verdicts on corruptors was proof
positive of the half-hearted commitment to law enforcement in
this country, and how the law could be hijacked by those with
money.
He criticized law enforcers for being "too legalistic" as they
persistently hid behind legal procedures, instead of adhering to
the substance of the law.
"Law enforcers mistakenly think that legal certainty means
adhering to the legislative provisions blindly," Ali said, adding
that law enforcers could easily manipulate poorly worded and
drafted legislation in the interests of their probable
benefactors: the corruptors.
The law, he asserted, is not the same as legislation because
law enforcement without morality is merely "law enforcement
without soul."
Ali once again pointed out what the public is all too well
aware of: a legal institution can never produce justice if it is
led by officials who are up to their necks in corruption
themselves.
"A dirty broom won't make the floor clean. In fact, it will
make it even dirtier," he remarked.