KPK to learn from China's antigraft drive: Chief
KPK to learn from China's antigraft drive: Chief
Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post/Beijing
Top officials from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)
have traveled with the President to China to find out how the
Asian giant has successfully fought corruption.
"China has been widely known for taking harsh measures against
corruption, including by making 100 coffins (in advance for any
state official found guilty of corruption); one of them for the
prime minister. It's a good move. Hopefully, I can learn
something from their action against graft," KPK chairman
Taufiqurrahman said at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing
here on Thursday.
Taufiqurrahman is part of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's
entourage that is on a four-day visit to China. Susilo's main
mission is to follow up the strategic partnership he signed with
Chinese President Hu Jintao in Jakarta in April.
"It's amazing how China, which used to be notorious for its
widespread corruption more than a decade ago, has turned into a
country which has a tremendous economic growth as well as a good
civil society," Taufiqurrahman said.
"How can investment come into our country if there's no
political will to fight corruption and uphold the law? How can we
develop infrastructure projects in the absence of this will?"
The KPK had yet to do enough, Taufiqurrahman said.
"But once the anticorruption drive gets into top gear, I
expect the police, the Attorney General's Office, the courts, tax
offices, customs and excise and local governments to follow
suit."
Susilo told the Indonesian community who live in China on
Wednesday that the country needed to a turn over a new leaf.
Taufiqurrahman, meanwhile, acknowledged that the desire to
fight corruption in the country remained low and said much of
what politicians and officials said about cracking down on graft
was merely lip service.
To improve its competitiveness in the region, Indonesia needed
to learn from neighboring countries like China, Malaysia and Hong
Kong about how to fight corruption, he said.
"I have urged all regents, mayors, governors and ministers as
well as director generals and judges to show (in actions) their
strong determination to fight corruption," he said.
"People can not wait for another 20 years. We have been
suffering for seven years from a economic crisis worsened by
graft."
International research institutions have regularly ranked
Indonesia as one of the world's most corrupt countries, with
graft common in the bureaucracy, legislature, law enforcement and
the judiciary.
Fighting corruption has been one of Susilo's top priorities
since he assumed power last October and many state officials have
already been jailed or investigated for graft.