DPR has done little to eradicate KKN: Mega

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has expressed concern over the lack of support from the House of Representatives for her efforts to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism in the country.

Chairman of the Multipurpose Cooperative of Mutual Assistance (Kosgoro) Hayono Isman said, after meeting Megawati, that she had complained about the lengthy discussion of many bills to promote the eradication of corruption.

"The President cited as an example that the long debate over the money laundering bill indicated that the government lacked support from the House to stop such practices," Hayono said.

According to Hayono, the President underlined that she only had two and a half years before the next general election in 2004 to improve the regulations and a system to optimize the eradication of such practices, which had been the main factor behind the hardships currently facing the country.

"From the discussion, the President expressed her strong intention to concentrate on building a better system for the country and leave the general election in the hands of the people," Hayono said.

This is the second time that Megawati criticized the House for its performance as a legislative body in setting regulations for the country.

In her speech in front of National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) course participants last month, she said that the internal conflicts of interest at the House had slowed down the reform movement.

At Monday's meeting, Hayono, a former minister during the presidency of Soeharto, sent a strong message to the President that the political process should not interfere with legal processes when investigating corruption cases.

"We support the government's effort to eradicate corruption, but we consider that politicking in the House should not hamper the legal process," said Hayono, who leads the organization that used to be one of the Golkar Party's political instruments.

At present, Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung is facing a great political challenge as the House consultative body agreed on Monday to set a schedule to discuss the establishment of a special committee to investigate a financial scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), in which he has been implicated.

"The House should concentrate on deliberating the drafts, not on the establishment of many special committees to investigate a number of legal cases," he said, even though he refused to admit that he conveyed the official line of the Golkar party.

When asked what was the President's reaction to his suggestion, Hayono said, "The President did not say a word about it."

Anticorruption bills on which the House has still to complete discussion: 1. Amendment of Law No.39/1999 on corruption; 2. Money laundering bill; 3. Anticorruption commission draft.