Drive launched against crooked politicians

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.