Antigraft campaign sees little progress: ICW

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seven, for some, is a lucky number. Seven years since the reform movement kicked off a new era of democracy, the nation has only seen a tiny spark of hope, but many problems remain, activists say.

"There has been some progress in law enforcement," Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Teten Masduki said during a discussion on Thursday sponsored by The Indonesian Institute, referring to current actions being taken by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"The KPK has a mandate to use unprecedented methods, like entrapment, to catch corruptors," he said, adding that such actions also helped to discourage others from committing similar crimes, or at least made them more careful.

However, a lot of work remains.

KPK head Taufiequrrahman Ruki admitted that the combination of a corruption-prone system combined with a people lacking integrity in addition to an inconsistent law enforcement system made the problems worse.

He added that the law enforcement authorities were still trying to figure out how to define corruption.

"Several judges in the ad hoc commission continue to debate whether the KPK can even investigate corruption cases that took place before the commission was established (in 2002)," he said, citing one example.

Ruki also mentioned that law enforcers were not supported by sufficient funding, and that was evidence that the government was lacking the will to fight corruption. "For example, the ad-hoc judges have not received their salary for seven months," he said.

"Not to mention the massive public permissiveness towards corruption... the problem is just taken for granted," he said, adding that public support was a very important aspect in the antigraft campaign.

He said the KPK had received more than 4,000 reported cases of corruption in the last 18 months, of which only three cases had gone to court.

The commission is currently focusing its investigations on 10 cases, including the bribery and corruption case involving the General Elections Commission (KPU).

Meanwhile, political observer Eep Saefulloh Fatah of The Indonesian Institute said the KPK's decision to deal with the corruption cases against the national election body should be used as momentum to raise public awareness and spark new hope.

"KPK, as one of the major agents of change, must have a clear strategy," he said. "What it has done should only be seen as an initial step that other agencies and groups should follow up on."

Eep explained that a comprehensive strategy needs to involve 'clean' subjects of change, a stricter set of rules, strong authorities, public support and effective mechanisms to produce synergy.

"First of all, our law does not impose severe sanctions on corrupt officials of businesspeople," he said. "Secondly, corruption eradication actions have been lacking in the area of proper campaigns and communication with the public, resulting in continued ignorance in society."

Public support, aside from bureaucratic problems in dealing with corruption, was emphasized as an important aspect.

"Some experts have said that our society's mindset is already corrupt," he said, while adding that it would be very difficult to change such a mindset.

Eep, Teten and Ruki concurred, that building public awareness to shun corruption practices was one of the most important issues.

Such a movement, they said, should start from the simplest thing like teaching children at home the values of living honestly.

"In Australia, instead of teaching anticorruption values, people teach their children fairness," Teten said. "Practical implications of such a method have been proven to be more effective than rote memorization of what one should and should not do."

Furthermore, the baseline for building an anticorruption attitude must be put upon social awareness, instead of only the abstract fear of committing a sinful act, he added.(003)