Corruption probe may spread to other officials
Corruption probe may spread to other officials
JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib said on
Friday that his office could open an investigation of government
officials after it looked into the wealth of former president
Soeharto.
"We'll see later, after the investigation on Soeharto," Ghalib
was quoted as saying by Antara in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh. He
was on a visit to the westernmost province when asked whether the
investigation on Soeharto's wealth would involve current and
former ministers.
"In any investigation, there is always a need to question
other people, and we will question them," he said without
elaborating further.
President B.J. Habibie on Wednesday assigned Ghalib to chair a
government team charged with investigating the former president's
wealth.
Minister of Justice Muladi said on Thursday that officials who
had served with Soeharto, including Habibie, would have to fill
out forms detailing their private wealth.
Muladi said the mistakes of the former regime could not only
be blamed on Soeharto alone but were also the responsibility of
all his ministers and ranking officials.
Calls for a wider corruption probe into officials serving
under Soeharto, including Habibie, have been growing since
Soeharto made a televised statement on Sept. 6 denying he had
amassed a fortune worth trillions of rupiah over his 32 years in
power.
The calls have come from current and former ministers,
including several who had once served under Soeharto, academics
and human rights and pro-democracy activists.
They said an expanded investigation would lend credence to the
government's drive to fight corruption and help restore
confidence in the country and its government.
"If the government's drive to fight corruption is genuine and
not part of a political game, it should also investigate other
officials, including Habibie and his colleagues," a former
Soeharto aide, Emil Salim, said on the sidelines of a discussion
on corruption at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java.
Emil, who leads the Civil Society Movement and was a leading
figure demanding the ouster of Soeharto in May, added that he was
also ready to be investigated. He served as minister of
administrative reforms in 1973 and was in the government up until
1993 in several other positions, including minister of
transportation and state minister of environment.
Habibie, a close ally of Soeharto for decades, was research
and technology minister from 1978 until he was appointed vice
president in March. He took over the presidency when Soeharto
quit on May 21.
Lawyer and human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, who was
also speaking at the university, said the House of
Representatives should immediately draft laws to prevent
officials from illicitly amassing wealth. "The law requires that
government officials must report their wealth annually," Todung,
who chairs the ethics board at the Indonesian Corruption Watch,
said.
Meanwhile, a group of 100 protesters on Friday became the
latest to join the calls for the Soeharto investigation to be
expanded to cover all ministers who had served under him. The
demonstrators, from the People's Solidarity for the Upholding of
Justice, protested outside the Attorney General's Office in South
Jakarta.
Separately, Soeharto was seen at a mosque on the grounds of
the Bimantara headquarters in Central Jakarta for Friday prayers.
He reportedly looked unconcerned and smiled as he arrived with
one of his six children, Bambang Trihatmodjo, a founder of the
Bimantara group and who is at the center of a separate banking
scandal inquiry.
In Bandung, West Java, National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman
Amien Rais said the government-appointed team investigating
Soeharto's wealth should "show they are serious in two weeks".
"If not, demonstrations might be staged again either by PAN or
students," he said before inaugurating PAN's West Java branch.
He added that demonstrations were the only alternative, "wise"
forms of expression so far regarding such issues. (byg/43)