Govt must get down to nitty-gritty on corruption
The government, under strong pressure by pro-reform demonstrators, is undertaking legal action against corrupt practices by some former government officials and business people. Economist Kwik Kian Gie considers its efforts are not serious.
JAKARTA (JP): The government, in response to daily demonstrations by university students, has been taking measures against those allegedly involved in corrupt, collusive and nepotistic (KKN) practices but its efforts seem to be make- believe and based on favoritism.
The Attorney General's Office has interrogated current and former government officials as well as business executives but thus far it has not handed over any legal documents to a court.
Earlier, the office also questioned various bankers concerning possible abuse of funds but no follow-up measures have been announced. It is not known why none of them has ever been legally processed. Perhaps, none of them has done wrong, an X-factor has made it impossible to bring them to court or legal processes have been commercialized -- legal processes could be stopped if the bankers paid some money. Or, perhaps, the investigators were surprised to find that many important persons were involved in corrupt practices.
Recently, Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib and Coordinating Minister for Supervision and Development Hartarto announced their findings of KKN practices in various government institutions involving sums of money but they failed to spell out the names of the officials allegedly involved in the practices, the names of the institutions and the names of the projects.
It is, therefore, understandable if economist Dawam Rahardjo said, as quoted by Bisnis Indonesia on Dec. 30, that the announcement was not made transparent probably because Ghalib and Hartarto wanted to protect the interests of senior leaders of the state.
The public know that many Cabinet members have been involved in KKN practices and that the Habibie government, therefore, will never disclose the practices transparently. Such disclosures would be self-damaging.
But because the government needs a scapegoat, its officials have frequently mentioned former president Soeharto as the target of investigation into corrupt practices. They have admitted that they committed KKN practices just to follow the instructions of the then president Soeharto. A question can then be raised as to whether ministers are just slaves who should arbitrarily follow the instructions of their bosses or figures who can uphold their reputations.
Therefore, Habibie and his Cabinet members have no authority because they have positioned themselves as servants who do not want to take responsibility.
In fighting KKN practices, the current government is apparently trying to salvage as much money for the state as possible but no officials involved will be brought to court except Soeharto. By so doing, the government is imitating Soeharto, who, when holding the presidency, did not legally process officials involved in corruption as long as they returned the embezzled money to the administration.
Whether or not the legal processes are conducted on the basis of favoritism will be disclosed only if the investigations are carried out by an independent team.
On the basis of the above considerations, it is unrealistic to expect the Habibie government in the coming 10 months to legally process corruption charges against anyone except Soeharto and his family members, who no longer have political backing. Habibie himself said recently that his government would complete investigations into Soeharto's case by the date of the coming general election -- June 7.
Opportunities to try all corrupt officials will be opened up only if the coming general election leads to the election of a new president who himself has never been involved in corrupt practices before.
If members of the public continue to demand the trial of corrupt officials before the election of a new president, they will be disappointed, demonstrations will increase and criminal actions will intensify.
It is, therefore, very important for the country to have the coming general election conducted freely and fairly so that the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) members will be able to elect a new president who is free from any involvement in KKN practices.
Current government officials who have been involved in corrupt practices will try hard to disrupt the planned general election, so that it cannot be implemented freely and fairly and the new MPR members will have some tolerance of such corruption. If this happens, the people will get very angry and revolution is likely to occur.
To prevent a revolution from happening, the nation should hold dialogs to look for the best solution -- offering conditional pardons so that corrupt leaders will no longer try hard to sustain their power.