Government antigraft commitment questioned
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The fight against corruption in the country will bear fruit only if the government brings to justice a number of high-profile corruptors, an activist said.
"It (the government) should first jail high-profile state officials and businesspeople who are implicated in cases of corruption and abuse of power, so that people will believe the government is serious in this endeavor," the secretary of the National Law Commission (KHN), Frans Hendra Winarta, said.
He said the planned establishment of an anticorruption commission, which would be given extraordinary powers, would be futile if the government lacked the political will to stamp out corruption.
"This is not the first time the idea of an anticorruption commission has emerged. We had many such commissions in the past, but all failed because there was no political support from the government," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Hendra was commenting on the decision by the Attorney General's Office to halt investigations into alleged corruption cases involving cronies of former president Soeharto. The office said there was not enough evidence to charge the businesspeople.
Law No. 30/2002 on corruption, which was passed last November, stipulates that an anticorruption commission must be up and running by Dec. 27 of this year. The commission will have the authority to conduct investigations and file lawsuits against state officials implicated in corruption cases that cause loses to the state of at least Rp 1 billion (US$117,000).
Thus far, the government has only begun proposing names for the committee that will select candidates for the anticorruption commission.
There have been numerous complaints that the government is dragging its feet in establishing the commission.
The People's Consultative Assembly, in its annual session earlier this month, recommended the quick establishment of the anticorruption commission, on the grounds that corruption in the country had reached alarming levels. Indonesia has been rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world by a number of international research centers.
Hendra said without a strong commitment from the government, the fate of the planned anticorruption commission would be the same as that of earlier commissions set up by the government, including the KHN itself, the National Ombudsman Commission and the Public Officials Wealth Audit Commission, which were left powerless by a lack of government support.
The KHN, established during the administration of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, is struggling to make itself heard by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, while also dealing with a lack of funding.
Contacted separately, a legislator from Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Firman Jaya Daeli, said the establishment of the anticorruption commission would mark a breakthrough in the drive against corruption.
"The planned commission is the legal answer to the political deadlock in resolving rampant corruption cases involving high- profile state officials," he told the Post.
He said the independent nature of the planned commission would deter interference from other institutions. "Besides, those who will sit as commissioners will be public figures with integrity."
He dismissed public skepticism over the effectiveness of the planned commission, saying: "Stamping out corruption is not an easy task, but we have to start somewhere."