Drive launched against crooked politicians
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Dozens of noted intellectuals, artists and activists from non- governmental organizations announced the establishment of the National Movement Against "Rotten" Politicians on Monday ahead of the 2004 elections, pledging to announce their names soon.
Around 1,000 people braved the rain to attend the launching ceremony at the Proclamation Statue on Jl. Proklamasi, Central Jakarta.
Teten Masduki, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) which organized the campaign, promised to divulge the names of the unscrupulous politicians by February next year.
"For the time being, the important thing is to create an awareness among people of the presence of unscrupulous politicians," he said.
Among the intellectuals who attended the event were prominent Muslim scholar Nurcholish "Cak Nur" Madjid, who is a presidential hopeful, economist Faisal Basri, historian Anhar Gonggong, political expert J. Kristiadi and sociologist Imam B. Prasodjo.
Besides Teten, several activists also joined the campaign, including women's activist Debra H. Yatim, Transparency International Indonesia executive director Emmy Hafild and chairman of the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) Munir.
Director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) Hendardi, an activist from the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) Bambang Widjojanto, and executive director of the Partnership for Good Governance H.S. Dillon were also present.
Artists, such as Franky Sahilatua and Harry Rusli, and former bureaucrats, including former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, former minister of the environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, also attended.
Hundreds of Justice and Welfare Party (PKS) supporters rallied during the declaration to support the campaign.
Teten urged the people not to vote for "rotten" politicians during next year's general elections scheduled for April 5.
The national movement would make public the list of unscrupulous politicians and demand that all political parties drop them from their lists of legislative candidates, he said.
"Not only will we issue a blacklist of politicians, but also urge political parties to drop the blacklisted names from their lists of legislative candidates."
Teten said the campaign would also be conducted across the country in an effort to fight against "rotten" politicians in provinces and regencies.
"Today, we announce the launch of a similar movement in Yogyakarta and this will be followed in other provinces because rotten politicians are not only to be found in Jakarta," he said.
He said the movement had earlier agreed on several criteria to define unscrupulous politicians, including their involvement in corruption, collusion and nepotism, and human rights violations.
Politicians could also be categorized as "rotten" if they were involved in environmental destruction, domestic violence or drug abuse, Teten added.
During the declaration, Emmy Hafild, Cak Nur, Faisal Basri, Ali Sadikin, Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, Munir and Hendardi delivered speeches.
Emmy urged the people to vote against corrupt politicians, pointing out that the country was named the sixth most corrupt country in the world based on a recent survey by Berlin-based Transparency International.
Cak Nur concurred, saying all elements of society, including the intelligentsia, activists and the media, should join forces to combat corruption.
Munir and Hendardi called on the nation not to vote for politicians with poor human rights records and those who often made statements that played down human rights violations.
The movement received a positive response from the Muslim- based PKS, whose executives said their party would submit its list of legislative candidates to the movement's secretariat before filing it with the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Monday.