Improper meddling?

This is a final follow-up to attempts to get feedback on a complaint about an official in the Medan Immigration Office who extorted many millions of rupiah at a time (in premonetary crisis value) from expatriates and Indonesians. Finally, on Dec. 26, I received a letter from the Director General of Immigration Mr. Pranowo, who explained that following an investigation in July 1998, official X had been issued a strong reprimand and was named Immigration Attache at the Indonesian Consulate General in Los Angeles.

What is disturbing (apart from the fact that official X seems to have been more rewarded than disciplined for his malpractice) is that Mr. Pranowo's letter to me included an admonition that by continuing to follow up my complaint I went too far: "You've gone too far with your meddling in the established procedures of our Directorate." One can only marvel at this disingenuousness that openly characterizes a complaint about public corruption as "improper meddling in the Directorate's established procedures."

But is this a subtle threat? If a foreign investor in Indonesia files a corruption complaint and expects the complaint to be followed up as promised, will he/she then be warned that this is not proper? Does the State Minister for Investment Hamzah Haz consider Mr. Pranowo's warning an acceptable response to an investor's problem with a corrupt official? Must foreign investors (and their expatriate staff) who are asked to make payoffs keep silent? Is there nowhere we can safely report problems of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN)? On the one hand, the government is soliciting foreign investment and promising that they are dedicated to clean government; on the other hand, its subordinate officials threaten those investors like myself who ask for help against corrupt officials. Will the real government of Indonesia please stand up?

Because for five months there was no response to my many requests for feedback about this complaint, in November 1998 I sent an e-mail to President Habibie requesting assistance from his office. Mr. Pranowo's response referred to this e-mail. Now we know that President Habibie or a designated staff member reads e-mails and takes effective action on them. This is an encouraging sign of the President's accessibility and responsiveness. I thank President Habibie for the follow-up from his office.

Indonesia is no longer a collection of villages ruled by feudal chiefs. The feudal president has been replaced by a 20th century well-educated technocrat who has lived in an open, progressive democratic country for a number of years. President Habibie will not, we trust, countenance subordinates who misuse their authority to intimidate or retaliate against those who report and follow up corruption. If President Habibie and General Wiranto are looking for the forces that are endangering their administration, they might want to look to persons within their own government bureaucracy who resist reformation by protecting those guilty of KKN.

I thank Mr. Pranowo for his letter, which at last has confirmed the outcome of our complaint: Official X had his hands slapped and was sent on his merry way to L.A. Many Indonesian reformers will appreciate the price the bureaucracy pays for such a failure in self-reform.

DONNA K. WOODWARD

Medan, North Sumatra