Marzuki pledges to 'clean up' office

JAKARTA (JP): Newly-appointed Attorney General Marzuki Darusman promised on Tuesday to start "cleaning up" his office and pledged not to compromise in investigations of politically sensitive cases.

"During the briefing, I told people here that we all knew how the past situation was here and beginning from today we will start a new chapter, old practices must not be continued," Marzuki told reporters after delivering a speech before senior officials at his office.

Tuesday was Marzuki's first official day as Attorney General after a hasty handover ceremony the previous afternoon.

"Negative perception and public skepticism against this office must be straightened out and to do that institutional processes and control are needed to restore public confidence in this institution," added Marzuki.

When pressed further, whether he would be able to eradicate rampant corruption in his office, Marzuki said: "The dynamics of the Attorney General's office relies heavily on its leadership mechanism... I appeal to everybody here to start something new".

The Attorney General's office has been under public criticism since it was charged in June last year to investigate the alleged corruption by former president Soeharto.

The government of former president B.J. Habibie dropped the investigation last month due to insufficient evidence. Many believe that political willingness was lacking in the investigation.

The termination of the investigation against Soeharto led to the rejection of Habibie's accountability speech before the People's Consultative Assembly.

Marzuki, a known reformist leader within the Golkar Party, said last week that he would reopen the investigation.

Marzuki also said that the Bank Bali scandal, which allegedly involves a number of Golkar officials and Habibie's senior advisers, would be thoroughly investigated.

"I assure you that there will be no conflict of interest in the investigation, we will put that aside, and I have told Golkar's chairman Akbar Tandjung that I have no choice except to do what I have to do as the Attorney General," Marzuki said.

The scandal centers on Bank Bali's payment of more than Rp 546 billion (about US$80 million) to a firm run by Setya Novanto, a leading official in the Golkar Party, for the recovery of loans from the Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency.

Marzuki promised that all of his investigations would be conducted in a "transparent" manner.

Marzuki also revealed that the handover ceremony from his predecessor Ismudjoko, which earlier was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, had been hastily conducted on Monday afternoon at his own request.

"I feel that I have been officially appointed and was sworn in at the Palace last week, so I just wanted to get this simple technical matter over as soon as possible," Marzuki said.

Ismudjoko, a career official at the Attorney General's office, was named as an acting attorney general in June to replace Andi M. Ghalib who was suspended for alleged bribe taking.

A number of journalists on Tuesday repeatedly asked Marzuki why the handover was held on Monday. Some of them accused him of trying to hide the event from the media.

"I will not interpret this as a personal matter, I know that the message is being directed at somebody else.

"I will remain the person that you already know, if there is anything you need to ask, I will face that question and will tell you as it is," Marzuki said.

Certainly the National Commission on Human Rights chairman will be dealing with an entirely new environment at the Attorney General's Office.

Uncomfortable with the barrage of tough questions and Marzuki's frank responses, a senior prosecutor standing in the background was seen several times signaling to officials standing behind Marzuki to stop the press briefing.

Marzuki, however, disregarded them and continued to happily field answers. (byg)