DPR and its maneuvering

DPR and its maneuvering

From Koran Tempo

If you take a hard look at our nation's legal system, you will be shocked to see that it is fraught with ironies. The 1998 reform movement -- expected to become the pillar for upholding the supremacy of the law -- still proves to be elusive. Every effort to bring to justice the New Order regime's figures involved in human rights abuse, corruption, collusion and nepotism seems to have failed due to interference from the political elite.

It is no surprise that Indonesia has been labeled as one of the most corrupt countries in the world by the international business circle, as to date, only very few of the corruptors have been convicted and sent to jail.

Now even the House of Representatives (DPR) is bending the law. The conclusion of House's special committee that President Abdurrahman Wahid was involved in the Bulog and Brunei financial scandals and had violated the State Policy Guidelines resulted in the House issuing two memorandums of censure against the President. As a result, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is going to hold a special session on Aug. 1, 2001 that might see the impeachment of the President. All these despite the fact that the Attorney General's Office has absolved Abdurrahman of any involvement in the above mentioned scandals.

DPR's maneuvering to bend the law did not stop there. When Attorney General Baharuddin Lopa began an investigation into House Speaker Akbar Tandjung and Arifin Panigoro (chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's faction in the DPR) over alleged corruption, their colleagues, including MPR Speaker Amien Rais, decried the move saying it was aimed at terrorizing MPR/DPR members prior to the special session. This is an utterly vulgar and uneducated behavior of the political elite.

The public knows that corrupt members of the former New Order regime are still sitting at ease in the DPR. The Golkar Party's political maneuvering in the 1999 general election was any different from the previous general elections, which is fraught with bribery. As far as Baharuddin Lopa is concerned, he has integrity and is a law enforcer with a clean record.

Hence, would you please, honorable MPR/DPR members, give the newly inducted attorney general a chance to enforce the law. If it turns out that Akbar Tandjung, Arifin Panigoro and others have to spend the night in the Attorney General's Office cell prior to or after the MPR special session, so be it. What really matters is that the law is upheld to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism, and purge the DPR of corruptors.

RIDWAN

Jakarta