Combating corruption

Combating corruption

Indonesia, based on international surveys, is currently one of
the most corrupt countries in the world. President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has promised to improve this bad image.

Many believe that it would be appropriate to consider the
following two ideas: First, why don't we prefer saving government
assets to resolving these matters in court? If we can do this, we
will add cash inflow for our country.

On the other hand, if we settle corruption cases in court, it
will be far from public expectations. Some very important people
in Indonesia who have become suspects, for instance, can be
released easily and the government gets nothing.

Second, it is also crucially important to improve the salaries
of civil servants. What will happen if low-income investigators
are involved in a big scandal? Any investigator could be tempted
to make a deal with the suspects. The BNI case is a clear
instance of this.

The two approaches above may invite some debate. Some
investigators may prefer using punishment methods to finding
means of recovering the financial losses as a result of
corruption. The other option is to forget about criminal
proceedings if the suspects are willing to return the stolen
money to the state.

Significant and workable approaches must be applied to
eradicate corruption in Indonesia.

TUMPAL W., Jakarta