Just do it! Clean up the crooks in the Palace

Kornelius Purba, Jakarta

"Just do it!" President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did not intentionally mean to promote a popular footwear brand -- which is famous for this slogan -- when he drew on the motto in his speech when declaring war against corruption on Thursday at Merdeka Palace. His message is simple: Eradicate corruption, now!

The ceremony itself, broadcast live by state television station TVRI, was held in conjunction with the first International Anticorruption Movement Day. During the ceremony and in front of his very eyes, however, the President faced a chronic practice which he has often complained about. And this time he himself became the victim! Hopefully now he can use his power to stop this practice.

Participants of the ceremony, including the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) members had the opportunity to shake hands with Susilo after the ceremony. Palace photographers took pictures of each participant while shaking hands with him. The guests can easily get the memorable picture from the Presidential Secretariat Office a few days after the ceremony. Compliments of the President? Not exactly.

"Please don't charge people too much," Susilo reportedly once told his private photographer when he recruited the journalist to work for him during his presidency. It has been a common practice since the era of president Soeharto, that people are charged a high price, often extremely high, for such a picture. More money is expected when the guest can be photographed while speaking to the President. Many people are also willing to pay if they can have an opportunity to chat with the President after the ceremony.

And Susilo himself should have had enough experience of it when he was inducted as a minister in the previous Cabinet. Hopefully also, the President will have enough power to tell the official photographers not to charge people too much (which means that he still tolerates the fact that they take a smaller profit).

The official photographers have a strong business sense. Who would not want to have such an exclusive picture? There is an anecdote that the palace has its own company to handle this business, the PT Salaman (Handshakes Inc.).

Hopefully KPK chairman Taufiqurrahman Ruki did not need to bribe the officials to get a picture with the President during the ceremony.

People can proudly put this picture in front of their office or house, so when tax officials come to their office they can show the picture.

If the tax officials come to extort money from them, they may think twice after seeing the picture. This is quite common. When the military was still very powerful under Soeharto, Chinese shops, sometimes even massage parlors, often displayed a photograph of an Army officer with a thick mustache. Apparently it often worked well.

PT Salaman is only a small case in the presidential palace. No one doubts the President's determination to lower our country's rank as one of the world's most sophisticated corrupt nations.

But as the old saying says, "put your own house in order first", it would be good for the retired general to first clean up the palace, his official residence, before attempting to clean up other places. Like former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, Susilo has opted to stay at Merdeka Palace to make his activities more transparent to the public and also to avoid contributing to the traffic jams in the capital.

But during Abdurrahman's presidency, it did not mean that interested people could not get to see him personally without official procedures. At that time Gus Dur was so upset with the very powerful State Secretariat and downsized it. The result? His first presidential secretary was kicked out just after a few months in office. And Abdurrahman's successor Megawati Soekarnoputri quickly restored the glory of the State Secretariat.

One of the routine presidential activities is to receive guests, from ministers, governors, foreign guests and politicians to businesspeople. Another activity is officiating projects. The meeting schedule is now prepared by presidential secretary Kemal Munawar, a senior diplomat. All are prepared perfectly. But there are many ways to reach the President without Kemal's knowledge. Under Soeharto, his colonel adjutants were an alternative channel to reach him, because the adjutants could talk directly to him. His official photographer was only a noncommissioned officer, but he was among the very few people who could whisper to Soeharto while he was still talking in public.

There are many other ways to meet with the president, not just at his official residence, but also during overseas trips or when visiting the regions.

Ask businesspeople whose projects were inaugurated by a president. Many of them complained that they had to provide extra money for things like protocol, the press bureau and Presidential Security Guards (Paspampres). It is costly, and of course there will be no official receipt for the payment.

This is still about past presidents' public appearances. How about presidential policies and decisions? There are long-term complaints that presidential decrees (Keppres) and presidential Instructions (Inpres) are often issued after a long time. There are allegations that the content of the decrees were sometimes different from the original purpose, which was to cater to the interests of many, but in reality they satisfy certain interests only. There is talk among the State Secretariat officials that money is also needed to speed up the issuance of such decrees. And is it possible to influence the content of a presidential decree? Hopefully not.

The President has officially launched the anticorruption movement. But will he be able to stop the palace photographers from commercializing his pictures? Should he tell them, "Just do it!?" And what if the President's instruction is not heard this time?

The author is a staff writer for The Jakarta Post.