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