Alliance against corruption

Alliance against corruption

The remarkable success of the FPSB, a forum of civil society
organizations (CSOs) in West Sumatra, last month, to bring 43
corrupt members of the West Sumatra provincial legislative
council to justice has created several markedly positive
developments in the fight against corruption.

First, the rulings by the district court in Padang have raised
the momentum for developing more strategic alliances between CSOs
and state institutions for combating corruption (see another
article also on this page).

The Ministry of Forestry signed last week a three-year
cooperation agreement with Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and
Greenomis Indonesia to fight corruption within the management of
forest resources.

Under this program, the two CSOs have free access to data and
information on the ministry's areas of activities that are highly
vulnerable to corruption, such as the awarding of forest
concessions, logging operations, dealing with illegal loggers and
the auction of illegal timber by the ministry.

Several other corruption watchdogs, including Transparency
International Indonesia and the Partnership for Governance Reform
in Indonesia, are also helping several regency administrations to
establish islands of integrity within an ocean of corruption.

Even though they remain free pending their appeals, the Padang
district court verdicts of 24 months to 27 months in prison and
fines of US$10,000 to $21,000 on the provincial legislators serve
as a strong warning that the penalties for corruptors have now
become much higher, as the chances of being caught and being
brought to justice have increased.

The FPSB achievement, which capped more than a year of
tireless efforts, has also sparked a high sense of optimism in a
public that has become desperate about the drive against
corruption, such that whenever there is the will on the part of
officials and active oversight by the public through CSOs,
corruptors can no longer be regarded as untouchable.

Just witness how dozens of other legislators in more than 10
provinces and regencies are now either under prosecution or
investigation by the police and district attorneys on charges of
corruption. This wave of developments is greatly comforting amid
public apprehension that local autonomy, launched in 2001, would
merely redistribute corruption from Jakarta to the provinces and
regencies.

Yet more important is that the combating of corruption within
legislative councils is quite a strategic move to develop good
governance because one of the primary functions of legislators is
to control and hold administrations to account under effective
checks and balances.

Moreover, it is also greatly comforting to note that alliances
between CSOs and state institutions, besides being effective in
handling corruption, cost the government nothing. Such joint
undertakings require only a willingness on the part of the state
institutions to put themselves under full scrutiny by CSOs, as in
the case of cooperation between the Ministry of Forestry and the
two CSOs.

This cooperation is quite important, especially in the absence
of legislation on free access to information within areas of
public interest, which the public in Thailand has enjoyed under
the Freedom of Information Act since 1997.

The Center for Legal Research of the University of Andalas --
a CSO member of the FPSB -- provided the Provincial Prosecutor's
Office in Padang with legal assistance in building solid
corruption cases against the 43 legislators.

The experience of other countries that have had remarkable
success in fighting corruption demonstrates how CSOs, the media,
legislators, the judiciary and the private sector should be
involved with full voice and empowerment to make the drive
against corruption more effective.

The alleged smuggling of more than 56,000 etric tons of sugar
through the Jakarta seaport of Tanjung Priok would not have been
investigated so intensively had not the Association of Sugarcane
Farmers aggressively campaigned, in cooperation with the media,
to keep the case firmly in the spotlight.

A recent visit by a delegation from the House of
Representatives Energy and Mining Commission to Hong Kong and
South Korea two weeks ago would not have become a national issue
had not the trade union at Pertamina and several CSOs, including
the Professional Civil Society (MPM),campaigned aggressively to
link that overseas visit to the controversial sale of two Very
Large Crude Carriers by the state oil and gas company.

So effective have been public opinion pressures arising from
the campaign that Pertamina provided last week comprehensive
information on the tanker sales.

Nonetheless, there is still a need for more strategic
alliances between CSOs and state institutions, especially those
highly vulnerable to corruption such as tax and customs offices,
the state police and the judiciary.