ICW urges President to axe M.A. Rachman for 'poor record'

ICW urges President to axe M.A. Rachman for 'poor record'

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) for the second time has
demanded that President Megawati Soekarnoputri fire Attorney
General M.A. Rachman for his poor performance.

ICW aired the demand following the Attorney General's Office's
recent decision to halt the investigation into high profile
corruption cases that involved former president Soeharto's
cronies Prajogo Pangestu and Djoko Ramiadji, and his daughter
Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana.

"This decision provides convincing evidence that the Attorney
General's Office is the major factor inhibiting the country's
anticorruption drive," ICW coordinator Teten Masduki told The
Jakarta Post. here on Friday.

He also called for the immediate establishment of the
anticorruption commission required under the anticorruption law,
and for this commission to thoroughly investigate the cases.

Businessman Prajogo was named a suspect for his alleged role
in a markup case involving an Industrial Forest Estate (HTI) in
South Sumatra that caused Rp 159 billion (US$18.7 million) in
losses to the state. Tutut was declared a suspect for her role in
a $31.49 million markup case in a project involving the
construction of a fuel pipeline in Central Java. Meanwhile, Djoko
Ramiadji was named suspect in a Rp 811 billion corruption case
involving the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) project.

The investigations of the three have now been halted, with the
Attorney General's Office claiming that the cases had actually
inflicted no losses on the state.

ICW called for the attorney general's dismissal for the first
time when Rachman was found not to have declared part of his
personal assets to the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission
(KPKPN) last year.

Megawati declined to replace Rachman, saying simply that there
was no guarantee that his successor would be any better or
cleaner.

ICW in its press release pointed out that the Attorney
General's Office had consistently failed to fight against
corruption in the country. Even worse, the Office, the highest
prosecuting authority in the country, had frequently pursued
controversial policies that flew in the face of the public's
sense of justice.

Restructuring of the Attorney General's Office, which is
responsible for spearheading law enforcement, was badly needed in
order to improve the Office's performance, said the press
release, a copy of which was made available to the Post.

An overhaul of the Attorney General's Office was urgently
needed as many tough tasks lay ahead of it. According to the
latest findings by ICW, the Attorney General's Office had failed
to satisfactorily resolve at least 20 other high profile
corruption cases.

The Rp 1.7 trillion corruption case involving former president
Soeharto was one of these 20 cases. The Attorney General's Office
looks set to halt this investigation as it is claimed that
Soeharto is no longer physically fit enough to stand trial.

Many believe that the Attorney General's Office is also
responsible for allowing seven corruption suspects to escape
overseas. The seven are Sjamsul Nursalim, Bambang Sutrisno,
Andrian Kiki Ariawan, Eko Adi Putranto, Sherny Konjongian, David
Nusa Wijaya and Samadikun Hartono.