Just do it! Clean up the crooks in the Palace

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.