Don't feign ignorance
Don't feign ignorance
The police, who spearhead the law-enforcing institutions, are
expected to be sensitive, smart and diligent. They are expected
to act without discrimination and do their utmost to unearth the
mystery of the Bank Bali scandal, which is assumed to be the tip
of the iceberg for other similar crimes.
Relevant state apparatus should not try to systematically
disappoint the community at large, now eagerly awaiting the
exposure of this foul scam, by half-heartedly probing this case
and making other efforts to fool the community. It is especially
true now when this scam is widely known and will, therefore, be
monitored at home and abroad.
The chief of police must be very naive when, as quoted in the
Sept. 2 edition of Media Indonesia, he said that "there was no
indication of the involvement of state officials in this case";
the reality, as is known to the public, is to the contrary. In my
opinion, being involved in a case may not necessarily have a
negative connotation because it must still be determined how
someone became involved and what motivated him. Therefore, it is
unnecessary for the police chief to be apprehensive about
acknowledging that a number of state's officials are involved in
the scandal.
Information about the case abounds: the document called Rudy
Ramli's Diary, the audio cassette containing a recording
purportedly of Baramuli and Setya Novanto, which Roy M. Suryo, an
expert in voice identification, has scientifically proved to be
the voices of the two men. There are many other media reports
published or broadcast in the past month, of which the most
interesting is the chart of the flow of funds from Bank Bali to
PT EGP and Joko S. Tjandra, published in Business Indonesia of
Sept. 2. It clearly shows the people who received the money and
how much each of them obtained.
If the police chief has a thirst for truth, he will have no
hesitation in summoning those who allegedly received the money to
inquire in what connection the transaction occurred. It must be
ascertained whether they have received the money because of a
business deal, as Enggartiasto has stated, or because of other
reasons. Information about this must continue to be pursued and
supporting evidence/documents asked for. It is always a
possibility that the documents have been fabricated; if this is
the case, the real motive behind the distribution of the money
can be revealed. The chart referred to above clearly shows that
PT Ungaran Sari Garment provided Rp 642 billion to many parties,
including a figure close to State Minister of the Empowerment of
State Enterprises Tanri Abeng and one of President B.J. Habibie's
siblings.
It is greatly hoped that the police chief and all his officers
will have the courage to abandon the New Order custom of "acting
only under order of the ruler". They must now show their
independence and their gallant behavior in defense of the
interest of the people. They should discard for good their oft-
repeated pretexts of "the presumption of innocence", "lack of
authentic evidence" and the like, so that nobody may have the
impression that they are either lacking in nerve and independence
of action or afraid of losing their positions.
The police chief should know that the people are hoping to see
the police take firm and fair action without any discrimination
in dealing with criminals who have very daringly misappropriated
people's money, shamelessly and boldly dancing upon the people's
sufferings. Do not feign ignorance of this evil crime. Any
reluctance on the part of the police to use their authority to
thoroughly solve this rotten scandal will only deeply hurt the
people's sense of justice and their very conscience.
H. WISDARMANTO GS
Jakarta