Buloggate not necessary

Buloggate not necessary

I was surprised, shocked might be closer to reality, when I
read a news item in Suara Pembaruan on Dec. 6 under the title
Golkar worried about the possibility of national disintegration.

It was said that 16 provinces would separate from the republic
if the House of Representatives insisted on creating a special
committee to investigate the Buloggate II scandal and the roles
of the Golkar Party and its chairman Akbar Tandjung.

This was said by Mahadi Sinambela, a prominent leader of
Golkar. The only reason mentioned by Sinambela was the fact that
the 16 provinces, all in East Indonesia, are all governed by
Golkar functionaries.

What a strange conclusion! I don't think that this will happen
even if the special committee is established. When former
president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid faced similar allegations
of misappropriating State Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds, he also
warned that provinces could split from Indonesia. Gus Dur
eventually resigned but the country remained intact.

I am of the opinion that no special committee is needed, as
the Bulog scandal is a purely criminal case. Hence the case
should be tackled by the right institutions, specifically the
police and or the attorney general.

Larger recent corruption cases allegedly involving
businesspeople like Eddy Tansil, Nursalim, Sinivasan and other
big shots has not prompted the legislators to establish a special
committee to probe these cases. If now the special committees are
formed only because the culprits are VIPs, this is obviously
against the principle of equal justice for all.

The legislators had better focus their activities on promoting
the welfare of the people as a whole and to avoid the duplication
of responsibilities, because that is what they were elected for.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta