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."