Fighting corruption Korean-style
Riyadi Suparno's News Analysis titled Fighting corruption through civil service reform (The Jakarta Post, March 24) is worth commenting on. There are at least two points that need further elaborating.
Firstly, the massive transfer of about 2.1 million central government civil servants to the regions was actually a part of the civil service reform package undertaken by the Office of the State Minister for Administrative Reform. The other part of the package, comprising the amendment of several government regulations, has been completed, and other regulations are still being prepared. In addition, no less than four bills are also being drafted.
As for the unified national civil service -- as reflected in Law No. 43/1999 -- it is not intended to "recentralize" the control over the civil service currently enjoyed by the regions, but rather to establish a "standard", namely, that there is only one national, uniform quality civil service in the country.
Secondly, you referred to South Korea's success in fighting corruption as described by Prof. Yunwong Hwang at a seminar here, which I also attended. However, there was one critical point that he did not mention in his two well-prepared papers.
According to the Korean Herald Tribune, which was quoted by the Post on May 28, 2004, the South Korean president -- like President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- leads the presidential campaign against corruption himself.
The difference is that in Korea -- according to the paper -- the president chairs a monthly -- I repeat, a monthly -- meeting of law enforcement agencies to evaluate the progress made to date. And in doing his job, the president is helped by a police unit responsible for investigating corruption cases brought to light at the meeting. The results have been astonishing, with many senior government officials, chaebol (Korean conglomerates) and former presidents being brought to court.
In Indonesia, what is needed is the taking of proactive steps by the President as the leader of the corruption eradication campaign. The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) reports submitted annually to the House of Representatives could actually be used to investigate irregularities perpetrated by Indonesian civil servants.
A BPK report reveals that about 50 percent of state development funds were misappropriated during the first semester of the 2004 fiscal year, amounting to about Rp 164 trillion . (Republika, March 28). Given the huge scale of these irregularities, without a Presidential commission like the one in Korea, and without having to wait for too long, the President could swiftly order the police to investigate the irregularities highlighted in the report as they fall into the category of extraordinary crimes.
M. RUSDI Jakarta