'Democracy and free press could wipe out corruption'

'Democracy and free press could wipe out corruption'

SEMARANG (JP): A democratic political system, including the presence of a free press, could eliminate corruption which is rampant in the Indonesian bureaucracy, sociologist Loekman Soetrisno said yesterday.

Given that all other methods of eliminating corruption has failed, the only recourse available now in fact is a more democratic political system and a free press, he said.

"I wasn't surprised to hear that Indonesia has been called the world's most corrupt country besides China. The situation is so appalling and chronic," the staff lecturer of the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta told The Jakarta Post.

Now, he added, there is a good momentum for Indonesia to launch a massive drive to eliminate corruption, pointing out to a growing international movement, led by the media, to expose cases of corruption to the public.

He said the mass media could make the biggest contribution because corrupt officials would think twice before "robbing" their own country if they knew that they risked public exposure.

Question

"The media is our hope," he said. "The only question now is whether the press is courageous enough to expose corruption cases in an objective manner. This, for me, is still the big question."

The role of the media in exposing corruption cases came under close scrutiny last month following the barrage of media publicity about the allegations of misconduct by Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto.

When the minister was cleared of the allegations by President Soeharto, the newspapers that had led the campaign were widely criticized for failing to maintain their objectivity. The Association of Indonesian Journalists also criticized some of its members for failing to uphold the presumption of innocence in the way they treated the Haryanto affair.

The affair has provoked a clamor for a new campaign to wipe out corruption in the country.

Loekman said past anti-corruption campaigns failed for two reasons: The number of government officials who are not corrupt have become fewer and that most corruption cases were solved politically outside the court system. (har/emb)