Akbar, Wiranto to come out clean, critics predict

Akbar, Wiranto to come out clean, critics predict

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Anti-corruption activists are skeptical about the seriousness
of a future probe of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and ex-top
officials of their alleged involvement in a Rp 54 billion
scandal.

They are concerned that the legal process at the Attorney
General's Office as well as political impeachment at the House
will end in Akbar coming out clean.

Prosecutors at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) have
planned to question Akbar and former military chief Gen. (ret.)
Wiranto on Wednesday as witnesses in the suspected misuse of the
nonbudgetary fund of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

Akbar is suspected of having diverted Rp 40 billion of funds
earmarked for food aid to his Golkar Party while he was
State/Cabinet Secretary in the B.J. Habibie administration in
1999. Wiranto will be questioned about Rp 10 billion he received
for a civil militia project.

Their involvement was disclosed by former Bulog chief Rahardi
Ramelan, who has become a suspect in the scam.

Chairman of the Indonesian Society for Transparency (MTI)
Sudirman Said said that little could be expected from the legal
process as long as judges and prosecutors offered "compromise".

"How can we trust the legal system when our judges and
prosecutors still 'set prices' for their verdicts. We cannot
expect much from it," Sudirman told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

"I am afraid that the process will end without any concrete
results. It may make people more skeptical about the government's
efforts to fight corruption."

Irfan Muktiono, head of the investigation division of
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), has another reason to be
skeptical. The majority of the Attorney General's prosecutors are
a legacy of the New Order's authoritarian regime.

Irfan said M.A. Rachman's appointment in August as attorney
general was thanks to Wiranto's intervention.

"I don't think Rachman will be serious in investigating
Wiranto and Akbar Tandjung," Irfan told the Post. He predicted
that Akbar and Wiranto would be freed of all charges on the
grounds there was no strong evidence to put them in jail.

Sudirman also predicted the impeachment process in the House
would not be as easy as it had been when they investigated former
president Abdurrahman Wahid earlier this year.

"The political atmosphere is different. There is 'mutual
cooperation' among politicians now and they try to protect each
other," added Sudirman.

Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party (PKB) will find it
difficult to push the House to establish a special committee.

Legislators from the largest party, the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDIP), need support from Akbar's Golkar Party,
which is the second largest in the House, to keep President
Megawati Soekarnoputri's government stable. Akbar Tandjung also
needs Megawati's protection.

Megawati is the chairwoman of PDIP.

According to Sudirman, legislators from the United Development
Party, which is the third largest, also have an interest in
maintaining stability within the government as its chairman
Hamzah Haz is now vice president.

"It's unlikely that the political process in the House will
take place smoothly as the three major parties do not favor
Akbar's impeachment."

Coordinator of Government Watch Farid R. Faqih said that the
Attorney General's Office should question Habibie as he was the
individual who was most responsible for the Bulog scam.

"He should be questioned as to why the social safety net
program was under the coordination of the state secretary and not
under the coordinating minister for people's welfare. I don't
believe that all the money went to the social safety net program.
I am sure that Habibie knows how the money was spent," Farid told
the Post.