Mahfud offers compromise for alleged corruptors

JAKARTA (JP): Newly installed Minister of Justice and Human Rights Mahfud M.D. has suggested that compromises be made in the case of corruption suspects.

Mahfud said on Friday that cases of graft committed in the past had become a major headache for the country during Abdurrahman Wahid's administration.

"The question is, how do we handle corruption?" he said.

He said that one option was to "amputate" all state officials who had hampered efforts to curb corruption. Another option is to set aside past cases.

"The last option is to reconciliate (with corruptors) or to forgive (them)," he told journalists after taking the helm at his new office.

He implied that corruption in the past was done collectively since the crime was inevitable for those who wanted to build a career in the government back then.

The idea of reconciliation for corruptors was first introduced during the drafting of revisions to Anticorruption Law No. 31/1999, but was dropped before the bill was submitted to the House of Representatives last month.

The drafting team had suggested that alleged corruptors pay a certain amount of money to recover the state losses they caused so they did not have to face investigation or trial.

The debate is still to continue along with a plan to institute a law on recovering state wealth.

Mahfud, former minister of defense, is replacing Marsillam Simanjuntak, who is now the attorney general.

The two were officially installed on Friday morning by President Abdurrahman after being appointed on July 10, following the sudden death of Baharuddin Lopa on a trip to Saudi Arabia to hand over his ambassadorial post.

Mahfud admitted that during the new administration the efforts to eradicate corruption had not worked.

"It is an never-ending problem because the crimes are committed in a sophisticated manner as if they were organized, while most from the past regime are involved. And now they are trying to halt legal proceedings since we don't have a powerful enough law to solve this problem.

"To make it worse, those who claim to be reformists become corruptors as soon as they get a position in this new administration," he remarked.

Mahfud launched his first step to curb bribery in judiciary institutions by establishing a nonstructural team led by noted law practitioner Todung Mulya Lubis to gather reports on violations by law enforcement personnel, including judges and lawyers.

Separately, newly inducted Attorney General Marsillam Simandjuntak vowed to handle crimes which largely harm people's interests, including corruption, in his own way.

Marsillam implored people not to compare him with the late Lopa, who he said was much a "bigger" name, and not to place too high an expectation on him that he would be able to emulate his predecessor.

"Lopa's feet were too big for me. I cannot fill his shoes. If I force myself to wear them, I may stumble and fall," Marsillam said in a reception after the handover ceremony from acting attorney general Soeparman at the Attorney General's Office on Friday.

He said that one hall in the office would be officially named after Lopa during the Attorney General's Office's anniversary on Sunday.

On Thursday, President Abdurrahman repeated his commitment to upholding the supremacy of the law by challenging the Supreme Court to try all suspects of corruption, including any members of his family.

He said in Kediri, East Java, that there were rumors that some of his relatives were involvement in corruption.

"If there is suspicion, investigate. If necessary, bring them to court. Whether it be my daughter, my brother or my nephew, whoever, if they are involved, bring them to court," he said. (bby)