Bill on clean governance lacks teeth: ICW chairman

JAKARTA (JP): To pass the clean governance bill without giving substantial authority to an independent body to implement the power controls would be a pointless and abortive attempt to uproot corruption, according to the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW).

The chairman of ICW, Teten Masduki, said on Friday the bill should provide for the establishment of a permanent independent commission with the authority to investigate and prosecute public authorities though to be abusing their power.

He suggested that members of such a commission be appointed by and be responsible to the House of Representatives, not the president, to ensure their independence.

"If the members of the commission are appointed by the president, the commission will not be independent," he told reporters on the sidelines of a special hearing on the bill with the House's United Development Party faction.

He said the current bill, which is still being debated by the House and is expected to be approved before the June 7 general election, stipulates that the commission must report to the president and its authority is limited to making recommendations.

"There are concerns among government officials that if the commission is given greater authority, it will interfere in the power of the government," Teten said.

He said that giving complete authority to the commission was necessary, as, he explained, rampant corruption during the reign of former president Soeharto was facilitated with presidential decrees and government regulations, making such actions difficult to pin down as illegal.

Soeharto's family and associates are widely thought to have amassed their enormous fortunes through corruption, collusion and nepotism permitted during Soeharto's 32 years in power.

The public has demanded that Soeharto and his allies be brought to trial for crimes of corruption.

Presidential hopeful Amien Rais, head of the popular National Mandate Party (PAN), criticized President B.J. Habibie on Thursday for being too slow in dealing with the alleged corruption of his mentor and former leader.

He demanded that Soeharto be immediately brought to court for trial.

Teten said Habibie would not dare to bring the corrupt officials of the Soeharto regime to trial, despite his widely trumpeted anticorruption campaigns.

"His intention by proposing and amending various laws is just to prevent corruption in the future," he said. "He is applying two-faced politics."

Teten said the new bill on clean governance would be effective in fighting corruption if it required government officials to provide proof that their wealth was acquired lawfully.

"This principle of reverse authentication is very important because the Attorney General's Office has so far claimed it has no evidence to support the corruption charges against officials," he said.

However, Teten explained that officials could always hide away their ill-gotten wealth with sophisticated money laundering techniques, thus avoiding the necessity of proving the origin of their fortunes.

He said one way to prevent this was to require all financial institutions to report transactions above a certain amount.

The government is now drafting the financial transaction report bill to thwart money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes. (rei)