JP/6/OTHER2

JP/6/OTHER2

The Attorney General's party

The wedding reception of the daughter of Attorney General M.A.
Rachman made headlines, with two legislators lambasting the party
which they said cost Rp 500 million with an invitation list of
5,000 people. Spokesman of the Attorney General's office Barman
Zahir however, said the reception was far from luxurious and that
there were only some 200 invitees.

Rather than fussing over the party it is the performance of
the Attorney General's office which is more important. On June 10
prosecutors of the Bank Indonesia liquidity fund (BLBI) case, in
which the defendant was Samadikun Hartono of the Bank Modern,
only demanded one year imprisonment for Samadikun, who is charged
of robbing the state -- the taxpayers -- of Rp 169 billion.

Actually so many corruption cases involving the Bank Indonesia
liquidity funds handled by the Attorney General's office have
become unclear. The office's earlier pledge to settle all cases
by August 2002 has been prolonged to December. The list of other
unresolved cases is very long.

Without so many vanishing cases, there may be some truth in
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's earlier warning against the
AGO being a forum for the "buying and selling" of cases.

Investor, Jakarta