Fighting corruption must be made a top priority

Fighting corruption must be made a top priority

By Joe L. Spartz

JAKARTA (JP): The corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN)
legacy inherited by the new administration remains a festering
issue which, in spite of countless other immediate priorities,
needs to be resolved.

Besides meting out justice or restoring trust and confidence
at all levels, restitution and recovery of ill-gotten wealth
should be pursued with whatever means necessary.

That drastic KKN action, if supported by the necessary
political will, is perfectly possible as was dramatically
demonstrated by the Pakistan military government in its
anticorruption crackdown on Nov. 17.

Wide-sweeping and retroactive anticorruption legislation was
enacted in record time with new national accountability courts
empowered to prosecute and decide cases within 30 days.

While actions of the military administration in Pakistan
cannot serve as a blueprint for a democratically elected
government in Indonesia, it is nonetheless true that a lot
remains to be done.

KKN, the erstwhile rallying cry of opposition forces in
Indonesia, now rings increasingly hollow and stale.

From a plethora of alleged or proven high-profile KKN cases to
choose from, sadly few have had their day in court with not a
single conviction handed down so far.

Domestic and international expectations from the Abdurrahman
Wahid government may be unrealistically high but in the absence
of drastic, rapid and convincing remedial action, widespread
disillusionment will be unavoidable.

Faced with a myriad of immediate problems, the new
administration cannot be expected to perform miracles. It is
nonetheless true that with very few exceptions, the government
has yet to make a comprehensive statement about specific KKN
cases to be prosecuted or how far it is prepared to go.

Prosecuting a limited number only of high-profile cases may
not be sufficient to restore domestic and international
confidence, whereas bringing all known KKN cases to justice would
be outright impossible.

To start with, a hopelessly overloaded court system, afflicted
with a less than pristine reputation for impartiality and
rectitude cannot reasonably be expected to bring an acceptable
number of KKN cases to a fast and just conclusion.

In most instances, judges would not possess the necessary
expertise to deal with intricate business or financial issues and
courts would lack the necessary funds to secure outside
professional help and expert assistance.

Since the existing court system cannot be relied upon to bring
all major KKN cases to a professional, impartial and speedy
conclusion, other legal avenues and pragmatic alternatives need
to be explored.

A first crucial step would be a clear demonstration of the
government's will to prosecute KKN cases, irrespective of
political considerations or consequences.

This should be accompanied by the speedy enactment of clear,
retroactive and comprehensive antigraft legislation so as to
prevent prosecution from getting bogged down by pettifogging or
drawn-out legal maneuvering.

In order to ensure the highest possible degree of judicial
expediency, impartiality and competence as well as to allow for
an acceptably large number of KKN cases to be heard, independent
KKN courts would need to be established.

KKN courts should definitely be vested with the all
investigatory, prosecutorial and judicial powers necessary to
carry out their mission effectively and free from outside
influence.

KKN court judges and prosecutors should be recruited to the
extent possible from members of the Indonesian Bar Association
(Ikadin) and supported by qualified professionals and experts
from the private banking, financial and business sectors.

Since a significant percentage of KKN cases are bound to have
international ramifications, expert assistance should be
requested from foreign governments.

This should include a sufficient number of financial
investigators, tax auditors, lawyers, banking and business
experts to be assigned to the various KKN courts in Indonesia.

Resulting costs could be funded by each foreign government
concerned and expert assistance thus provided would enable KKN
courts not only to trace KKN related assets abroad, but also to
compile the evidence necessary for their eventual recovery.

Special KKN legislation to be enacted should also provide for
simplified "fast-lane" court procedures so that all major KKN
cases can be processed within a reasonable time frame or to
ensure that verdicts handed down are not delayed by endless
appeals and other legal defense tactics.

As illustrated by the ill-fated attempt to trace former
president Soeharto's alleged multibillion dollar deposits in
Austria, bank secrecy walls cannot be breached in the absence of
carefully prepared evidence or without cooperation at the top
government level in the country concerned.

Another example is provided by the Philippines where political
interference, legal foot-dragging, lack of preparation and
coordination as well as outright bungling and incompetence failed
to trace and identify the Marcos wealth and where after a dozen
years, one single peso still remains to be recovered.

The prosecution of KKN cases in Indonesia, however, should not
be allowed to degenerate into an all-out witch-hunt and a
reasonable number of exceptions and amnesty procedures would need
to be provided for.

During the Soeharto regime for instance, many multinationals
had to resort to corruptive and collusive practices in order to
do business or to secure project approval.

Companies concerned should be offered amnesty in return for
full disclosure and cooperation with Indonesian KKN courts.

Likewise, amnesty should be equally offered to Indonesian
companies and private citizens subject, however, to the
repatriation or restitution of funds and assets to be agreed on a
case by case basis.

Firm and convincing KKN action is definitely needed if public
trust and confidence are to be restored and the rupiah allowed to
strengthen to levels of Rp 6,000 to the U.S. dollar and beyond.

As demonstrated by the recent anticorruption drive in
Pakistan, both image and credibility of a previously much
criticized military regime virtually changed overnight and will
undoubtedly go a long way in restoring both domestic and
international confidence.

The writer is a business consultant based in Jakarta.