Guinness World Records: Open door for Indonesia

Guinness World Records: Open door for Indonesia

Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post

There may be a chance for Indonesia to get its due recognition
in the Guinness Book of World Records for its achievement in
corruption management. The country may deserve the unique title
because Indonesia currently is likely the only country in the
world which has a convicted graft felon as its central bank
governor and its speaker of the House of Representative (DPR) is
in jail as a suspect in a corruption case.

Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin vowed on Wednesday
that he would not resign from his position despite the Central
Jakarta District Court's verdict that he was guilty of disbursing
Rp 904 billion (US$ 90.4 million) in state money during the Bank
Bali scandal in 1999.

Speaker Akbar Tandjung swore to retain his position although
he is currently in detention as a defendant in a Rp 40 billion
state fund abuse. According to Tempo news weekly, Akbar's
supporters even had the audacity to compare Akbar's imprisonment
with that of world class human rights champion Nelson Mandela who
also spent time in prison. Isn't that impressive?

The executives of the Guinness World Records Ltd. may raise
their eyebrows because this category of convicted high-ranking
officials is probably new to them. But Indonesia's case actually
might fall under their "human world" or crime category.

In convincing the London-based company, Indonesia can attach
the research results of the Political and Economic Risk
Consultancy (PERC), which awarded Indonesia the title of the most
corrupt economy in Asia. If that is still not enough, add the
findings of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI), which
last year ranked Indonesia the fourth most corrupt country in the
world after Uganda, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

A more honorary record in corruption would need the addition
of the eye-catching name of former president Soeharto. Who knows,
Soeharto might be the only former president in the world who can
avoid corruption charges just because doctors concluded there was
no hope for the octogenarian to recover from a variety of
ambiguous illnesses. Or we can just send the Guinness folk the
decision by South Jakarta Court Judge Lalu Mariyun, who on March
8 refused to reopen Soeharto's US$571 million corruption trial.

In democracy, Indonesia can also boast itself as a role model
for national leadership succession and set a perhaps some kind of
record for leadership changes in a presidential democracy. Since
May 1998, it has had four presidents.

Soeharto resigned from his position after abusing the country
for 32 years, without submitting any accountability or expressing
an apology to the victims of his dictatorship. His successor
Habibie earned the title of the world's first leader to lose it's
youngest state, East Timor.

How about third president Abdurrahman Wahid? He was proud to
receive the Indonesian Record Museum's (MURI) award for being the
country's number one frequent-flyer while he was president. Maybe
he was also the president with the quickest record of firing and
appointing Cabinet members.

From the view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Indonesia may deserve another record. All of Indonesia's four
presidents, including President Megawati Soekarnoputri, vowed to
obey its prescription to heal the country's dying economy. But
all of them, within the last four years, at least once, were
tempted to flee from the "IMF doctor", and questioned the need to
repay the billions of dollars in medication bills.

Megawati bears a huge burden, a "basket of garbage," she once
called it, from her predecessors. With 220 million people in the
world's largest archipelagic state, wouldn't that make Indonesia
the biggest garbage dump on earth?

Amid all this "rubbish" and potential negative world records,
the government must be commended for a number of heartening
measures. Apart from signs in law enforcement through the
detention of Akbar, the controversial plan to extend the term for
bad debtors was annulled; signs of peace came at last to the
ravaged Maluku islands and earlier, the conflict in Poso, Central
Sulawesi.

But then again the appointment of new TNI spokesman Maj. Gen.
Sjafrie Sjamsuddin brings to mind other potential "records" in
rights violations and the settling of separatist movements of
Papua and Aceh, and earlier, in East Timor.

Before anyone sends the application for the world records, the
warning from Guinness World Records Ltd. should be considered:
"Attempting to break records or set new records can be
dangerous ... and record attempts are undertaken entirely at the
participant's risk."