Govt must get down to nitty-gritty on corruption

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.