Democracy and accountability
By Afan Gaffar
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In recent weeks mounting public pressure has built up around two top government officials,who are being urged to resign. Political scientist Afan Gaffar argues that the public has the right to know what their leaders are doing. --------------------------------------------------------------------
JAKARTA (JP): There has been no economic or political issue within the last decade greater than the Bapindo Affair. A Chinese Indonesian businessmen by the name of Eddy Tansil, who in fact did not have a good financial reputation, with the support of two prominent figures, Admiral (ret) Sudomo and Prof. Sumarlin, easily took US$ 650 million from a state bank, Bapindo, without an adequate guarantee of its return.
Some of the money was used to finance a petro-chemical plant in West Java and the rest was transferred into Eddy Tansil's bank accounts, either in Hong Kong or in Jakarta.
The political implications of this scandal are clear. First of all, everybody in Indonesia is at present talking about the efforts necessary to establish a "clean government" so that corruption in the bureaucracy can be reduced.
Harmoko, minister of information and chairman of Golkar, the state-backed political body, revealed that one of the principal platforms of Golkar is the "clean government" issue. The Commander of the Armed Forces, Gen. Feisal Tanjung, also has indicated clearly that he will fully support any effort to create an honest government.
The second political implication is that the political community in Indonesia firmly believes that collusion between bureaucrats and members of the business community is not a myth but a reality. Consequently, the community will be quick to point a finger at bureaucrats and businessmen at any hint of it. The trust in the state bureaucracy is at its lowest point ever at this moment.
Although Sudomo has denied several times that he took any advantage of the financial affairs between Eddy Tansil's Golden Key Group (GKG) and Bapindo, nobody in this country will believe him. The political and economic community firmly believes that without the strong pressure from Sudomo -- he wrote several letters of reference in GKG's favor and personally guaranteed that Eddy Tanzil was a loyal and good citizen -- the chief executive officer of Bapindo would not have had the courage to provide such a huge amount of credit. And even though Sumarlin did not write any letters of reference, he did make several telephone calls to put pressure on the chief executive officer of Bapindo, so that the latter had to provide the necessary funding.
Almost every day, members of the political community in this country have been asking Sudomo and Sumarlin to resign. Students have demonstrated in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Jember and other big cities, demanding that Sudomo resign from his present post as chairman of the Supreme Advisory Board. Several legislators, such as Sri Bintang Pamungkas, have demanded the same.
The genius of democracy is that it requires political accountability. Within this framework, the political community has the right to ask the government to make a clear explanation of certain policies. Why, for instance, has the government so easily provided loans for members of certain ethnic groups as compared to the process faced by others, and why does the government intend to put money in a nuclear power project instead of opting for hydro-power projects as a source of energy? People are demanding an explanation.
Accountability involves public figures such as Sudomo and Sumarlin. Since people put trust in their leaders to represent their interests and to handle daily public affairs, the public also has the right to know what their leaders do, where they go and with whom. Within the democratic framework, prominent public figures must be prepared and be available for public scrutiny.
As a matter of fact, this kind of scrutiny is happening now with our government, our public figures and our public institutions, such as the owned-state bank Bapindo, even though some people condemn it as being part of a liberal framework, unsuitable for our Pancasila Democracy.
It is sad to read or watch the daily news about Sudomo and Sumarlin. Sudomo was one of the most powerful figures in the early 1980s as the chief of staff of the Kopkamtib national security agency. According to the late Gen. (ret) Yassin, Sudomo once even planned to put several prominent leaders of the Petisi 50 group on Buru Island, a place that was once considered suitable only for banished communists. Sumarlin played a dominant role in the reconstruction of our economy. It is sad to see that they have to end their political and bureaucratic careers in such a way.