Don't try to steal bananas

Don't try to steal bananas

Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, korpur@yahoo.com

If you decide to become a thief, or if you already are one,
please take this advice: don't be a mere banana thief like
Sudarno. Instead, steal as much as you can from the state
coffers, as the cronies of former president Soeharto allegedly
did, because the more cash stolen, the less appetite the
authorities will have for jailing you.

That was the message one received watching two news reports on
SCTV TV on Monday.

One report was about Sudarno, now in police custody after
being caught stealing some bananas from his neighbor in East
Lampung. Sudarno allegedly tried to steal a bunch of bananas to
feed his two starving children and granddaughter. The Lampung
Police spokeswoman vowed that Sudarno would be brought to
justice, although the owner of the fruit had forgiven him and
despite the fact that this spokeswoman acknowledged that
Sudarno's family was facing starvation.

Another report was on the wholehearted support Attorney
General M.A. Rachman received from House of Representatives
Commission II for his decision to drop corruption charges against
timber tycoon Prajogo Pangestu and Soeharto's eldest daughter,
Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana.

The House also showed its understanding about Rachman's
reluctance to locate convicted banker Samadikun, who fled after
being sentenced to four years in prison. The legislators are more
paranoid about the ghost of communism than the real threat of
corruptors.

A former director of a state-owned company recently disclosed
his formula for escaping corruption charges. "Fill their bellies,
in my case those of the police and prosecutors. As you can see, I
am free," the man declared proudly. Of course, he is not alone.

Based on simple observation, alleged corruptors known for
their generosity when still in power have a better chance of
avoiding the watchful eyes of the police and the state
prosecutor's office. Many believe Soeharto crony Mohamad "Bob"
Hasan is now in prison not because of his mega-scale corruption,
but because he was stingy and did not like to distribute his
wealth to other people.

As an attorney general, Rachman is no doubt full of empathy
for corruptors and robbers of state money; after all, one of his
associates accused him of corruption. Fortunately, President
Megawati Soekarnoputri's wisdom saved him from a humiliating
fall.

Rachman can share the trauma of this experience with one of
his predecessors, A.M. Ghalib. The Indonesian Corruption Watch
disclosed its findings on Ghalib's alleged corruption when he was
in Switzerland to investigate a report by Time magazine on the
transfer of US$9 billion allegedly belonging to the Soeharto
family from a bank in Switzerland to an Austrian bank. Ghalib
lost his job.

A chicken thief often receives a heavier sentence than a
corruptor, and we more often hear about the acquittal of
corruptors than of a chicken thief.

That is why lawyers are now more prestigious than medical
doctors, engineers or accountants. Their services are urgently
needed by those targeted in corruption investigations. And don't
think that their clients just need their legal knowledge; a good
lawyer for them is a person who can get all the charges against
them dropped by any means necessary.

All of Soeharto's successors -- B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman
Wahid and Megawati -- boasted that they would eradicate
corruption at any cost. But talk to businesspeople and many of
them will tell you that corruption under Soeharto was more
centralized. Once you reached a deal with one of his six children
or cronies, your project could go forward with no more problems.
You were also untouchable if you had connections to the then
first family.

These rules have been forgotten now! Now everybody wants to
steal the money. Not surprisingly, a local official will no
longer help you even if you describe in length your close ties
with President Megawati or her family.

Indonesians also are very tolerant about corruption. We often
feel confused when told that we do not need to pay to renew our
ID cards. Many churches and mosques receive huge donations from
people whose salaries are much lower than their donations. And
there is no lottery in this country. But rarely are donors asked
to prove the legitimacy of their donations. They are even praised
as "humble servants of God" and their generosity is expected to
be followed by others, regardless of how they got the money.

Sudarno is only a banana thief. The judges in his trial will
act as representatives of God when they issue their verdict
against this poor farmer. Misery awaits Sudarno should the judges
conclude that the farmer should be sent to prison. Why? Because
here, the only banana thief that people tolerate is a monkey.