An example worth following

South Korea is a country that has known from experience how difficult it is to get businesses to pay their outstanding debts and amend their scandalous dealings. It is for this reason that President Kim Dae-Jung took the bold decision of forgiving the chaebol (big businesses) and exempt them from prosecution on condition that they return the money they owe the state. Kim summoned the entrepreneurs one after another to be admonished. But they were also given the promise that they would be pardoned, provided they pay their outstanding debts to the state or return any money they misused.

As a result, the state got back its money and the entrepreneurs could resume their work in peace. South Korea's economy started to blossom. Last year, that country's economic growth rate approached the 10 percent level -- the highest among East Asian countries affected by the economic crisis.

We propose that President Abdurrahman Wahid heed this lesson and follow in Kim Dae-Jung's footsteps. Not only has this policy proven to be effective, but there also is not anything wrong in a pupil -- as Abdurrahman refers to himself -- following his teacher's example. For certain many people will object to such a plan. That, however, would only be normal in a country where differences of opinion are not prohibited.

It is worth trying, as long as it is all done transparently. For certain it is better than the way we are doing it now -- by professing to uphold the law while making under-the-table deals in violation of the law.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta