'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)