Marzuki pledges to 'clean up' office

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)