An uphill battle
It is certainly gratifying to hear, straight from the horse's mouth as it were, that fighting corruption is so close to the hearts of our presidential election candidates. In all their campaign speeches and statements, none of the five pairs currently running for the highest posts in government neglected to assure the public that fighting this by-now-ingrained social scourge would be at the top of their agenda, should they be elected.
In a televised campaign debate, President Megawati Soekarnoputri assured participant Ikrar Nusa Bhakti that she would suspend the governor of Nanggroe Aceh Darrusalam, Abdullah Puteh, from his post, pending the completion of investigations.
By any measure, the corruption case implicating the governor and civil emergency administrator of Aceh, is currently among the hottest topics of public discussion here, and with reason. Before he became governor of that restive westernmost Indonesian province, Puteh was a prominent youth leader and, at one time, chairman of the Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI). As civil emergency administrator, he obviously commands a good deal of authority. At present, however, the governor finds himself implicated in a corruption case that has cost the state Rp 4 billion (US$5.4 million), allegedly by marking up the cost of purchasing a helicopter for his province's administration. In addition, he is implicated in a similar case involving the purchase of a Rp 30 billion power generator for the province -- a case that is currently under police investigation.
Circumventing details, on June 29, the six-month-old Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named Puteh a suspect in the helicopter purchase case and summoned him for questioning on July 6. However, the governor failed to appear on that date, citing a busy schedule, but promised to come three days later, on July 9. Again, he did not appear. Apparently weary of Puteh's maneuverings, the KPK in a letter to the President sent over the past weekend, ordered her -- in line with the authority granted to it under Law No.30/2002 -- to suspend the governor from his post. The commission informed the President that it would use its legal authority to force Puteh to succumb by July 14, today, despite the objections of Puteh's lawyers, who say their client will refuse to succumb until a pre-trial hearing affirms the commission's authority to do so.
It will be interesting to see which course the case takes in the days ahead. The government, for its part, appears reluctant to act. For his part, home minister Hari Sabarno is reported to have said that three main aspects -- administrative, political and legal -- must be considered by the President prior to the suspension of a provincial governor. And, what if she should refuse to act? "That is the President's political domain," said KPK chairman Taufiqurrahman Ruki: "The KPK has no authority (to force her). However, we have tried. Let the public make its own judgment."
It would seem that, in the long run, persisting to refuse to comply with the commission's request -- that is, on Puteh's part, to appear to be questioned, and on the President's part, to suspend the Aceh governor from his post -- would do little good for either Puteh or the President. The public, of course, will certainly "make its own judgment" by means of voting in the second round of the presidential election.
Nevertheless, it is the Indonesian public that stands to lose the most. In an almost equally prominent case that came to light earlier this month, Nurdin Halid, a lawmaker and chairman of the Confederation of Primary Cooperatives Association (Inkud), this week also defied a police summons for questioning in connection with his alleged role in a sugar smuggling scam. Law No.30/2002, by which the Corruption Eradication Commission was established, is the strongest legal instrument yet to be produced by the government and the House of Representatives. Being an independent body, the commission is supposed to be free of the influence and interference of any other institution. And yet, those two cases show how challenging it is to untie the Gordian knot that is the problem of corruption in Indonesia.
Given the situation, to hope that the election and installation of a new president and vice president in the near future will mean the immediate break of a new day -- in terms of clean government and egalitarian principles -- is to hope for too much, too soon. Nevertheless, the nation has no choice but to persist in its efforts to rid social parasites and self- interested leaders from society, or face the grim alternatives.