'It's time to act on corruptors'

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was high time that President Megawati Soekarnoputri stopped making promises and started taking action to combat corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN), critics said on Wednesday.

The lack of action on high profile cases involving retired and serving bureaucrats, businesspeople and the military only eroded people's trust in the government's commitment to combat KKN, they said.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri repeated her pledge to eradicate KKN in her year-end speech on New Year's eve.

"Megawati still tries to convince the pessimists, but she will fail to win people's hearts and minds unless she can show real actions and set an example," Teten Masduki, coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Sharing Teten's view is Farid R. Faqih of Government Watch.

"What Megawati better do now is to ask the attorney general (M.A. Rachman) to handle the 80 corruption cases inherited by his predecessor, the late Baharuddin Lopa. No more promises," Farid told the Post.

Teten suggested two things that Megawati should do to win back trust in her government as far as the anticorruption crusade was concerned.

First, take to court high-profile cases now frozen at the Attorney General's Office as they were the yard stick to measure her government's success in dealing with corruption, he said.

Teten mentioned cases allegedly involving former president Soeharto, Golkar Chairman Akbar Tandjung, and Deputy Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Ginanjar Kartasasmita. Other cases included those involving the state owned electricity company PLN and cases involving tens of thousands of trillion rupiah in the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance Program (BLBI).

Second, reform bureaucracy to reduce corrupt practices in her government by, among others, simplifying bureaucratic procedures that had become the traditional source of corruption, he said.

"Bureaucratic reform is needed to make it more efficient. The bureaucracy is rampantly corrupt from Jakarta down to the regions and is feared to worsen with regional autonomy," Teten said.

Farid noted that one of the President's major challenges was preventing her relatives and close friends from exploiting her position for their business interests.

"Failure to do so would only further undermine public confidence in her government, believing that she is not serious about combating corruption," he said.

Gowa estimates that last year, some Rp 100 trillion in state money was lost to corruption.

"Had the corruption not occurred, the government would not have had all the trouble with its budget deficit and the people would not have to pay more for their electricity, telephone and fuel bills."

Megawati's commitment to eradicating KKN was also questioned by the Indonesian Society for Transparency (MTI).

Its chairman, Sudirman Said, said that the lack of action had made corruptors more "daring".

"Corruptors can play with the law. With the stolen money and support from greedy lawyers, they can collude with the police, prosecutors, and judges," Sudirman said.

MTI noted that the government's achievements in resolving corruption cases were sending Soeharto's crony Muhammad 'Bob' Hasan to jail and capturing Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra after 11 months on the run.