Antigraft groups say show habibie the door

JAKARTA (JP): Major anticorruption groups are urging the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) not to reelect President B.J. Habibie on Wednesday in order to jump start the prolonged campaign to root out rampant corruption in the country.

"The first step to root out corruption and abuse of power is to vote Habibie out of power," said Albert Hasibuan of the prestigious Gempita anticorruption movement.

"He's a symbol of the past, very much tainted by corruption."

Albert said that during the 17 months of the Habibie administration, the problem of corruption did not subside but worsened, reflected in the higher country risks for Indonesia set by international rating agencies.

Albert was speaking in a panel discussion on corruption attended by various anticorruption organizations, including Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), the Indonesian Transparency Society and the Center for Banking Crisis.

The rejection by anticorruption movements is the latest of a series of public repudiations of Habibie's determined bid to stay in power.

His accountability speech last week met with widespread disapproval from political parties, independent experts and the public.

Anticorruption groups and several legislators have lambasted Habibie for failing to fight corruption, especially for his government's decision to suspend the corruption investigation into former president Soeharto.

Habibie stepped into the shoes of his mentor Soeharto, who resigned in May 1998 amid pressure from mass student demonstrations, unrest and the deepening economic crisis.

MPR, the country's highest legislative body, will vote on Tuesday on whether to reject or accept the speech. A rejection of the account would seriously undermine Habibie's presidential bid.

Coordinator of ICW Teten Masduki said that fighting corruption in the country was a mammoth task because the problem plagued almost all sectors, government institutions and private business through a patronage-client system built up during the 32 years of Soeharto's authoritarian rule.

Teten called Soeharto's government the best corruption institution established in the world because he was able to gain the support of the bureaucracy, legislature, crony businesspeople and the military during the lengthy period in power.

He explained that corruption in such a situation could only be eradicated by first replacing the old regime with a completely new and clean government.

Teten alleged that Habibie was a major player in the corrupt regime for more than 20 years.

During the gathering, a document was released by a participant which contained a summary of the October 11th issue of the German weekly Der Spiegel. It alleged that Habibie received some DM 200,000 in 1993 from Germany's Ferrostaal in its bid to secure contracts from Indonesian state company PT Krakatau Steel.

Habibie's close aide, Minister of Trade and Industry Rahardi Ramelan, was also reported by the magazine to have received the same amount from the firm.

"I'm very concerned about concerted efforts currently launched to revive the old corrupt government," Teten said, pointing to Habibie's political maneuvering to retain power and his decision to pick Indonesian Military chief Gen. Wiranto as his vice presidential candidate.

"They are going all out to gain as much support as possible and to bankroll this effort they have to raise as much funds as possible, including from corruption."

Habibie and his camp have promoted the Habibie-Wiranto ticket in a bid to gain military support. They have also touted Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tanjung as Megawati Sukarnoputri's ideal vice presidential candidate.

Megawati is Indonesia's most popular presidential candidate. Her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) won almost 35 percent of the vote in the June general election.

Wiranto said on Monday in a televised address that he had not been contacted by anyone from the Habibie camp, and held no interest for the time being in supporting any presidential candidate.

The meeting of anticorruption organizations also expressed great concern over "money politics" in the presidential election after several MPR members said that some Rp 1.2 trillion was allegedly allocated to buy MPR votes for Habibie.

"This money politics is very difficult to prove... partly because bribes money are no longer transferred through banks but given in cash," Teten said.

The anticorruption groups acknowledged that rooting out corruption would be a long fight.

"We're determined to maintain our stamina because we realize from the outset that this will be a long fight," said secretary- general of the Indonesian Transparency Society Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas. (rei)