Mega blames media human rights for failure to combat corruption

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri asked for the public's trust in her administration's commitment to the eradication of corruption, but said people should not make comparisons with the ways in which other countries fought graft.

Referring to China, which frequently executes convicted corruptors, Megawati said this would spark public uproar in Indonesia.

"Let me ask you now. If I meet a corruptor and immediately, bang, I shoot him, I am very sure that all of you will tomorrow write stories about how the Indonesian President has violated human rights," Megawati said in an off-the-cuff speech, pointing at members of the press.

She made the statement when delivering her speech during a ceremony marking the celebration of 18th World Habitat Day at the office of the Bali governor in Renon, Denpasar.

Megawati was responding to an article in a newspaper she had just read.

Written by a noted political observer, the article suggested the country needed to elect an extremely strong leader if it hoped to root out corruption.

"He should have observed and studied the issue before making such a statement," Megawati said. "I just laughed when I read it."

Human rights activists have persistently been demanding the abolition of the death penalty, asserting that criminals should be given the opportunity of making amends for their crimes.

Indonesian administrations since the fall of former president Soeharto's regime have been criticized for failing to eradicate corruption, which was once declared to be the main objective of the reform movement that brought down the corruption-ridden government of Soeharto in May 1998.

Many observers believe corruption has on the contrary become more widespread, saying it is now rampant in the legislative and judicial bodies at the local level, following the implementation of regional autonomy.

The country enacted an anticorruption law in 1999, which provides for a minimum sentence of three years in jail and a maximum sentence of death for convicted corrupters.

Corruption in the judiciary has been blamed for the acquittal of or light sentences handed down to corruptors.

The Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) again rated Indonesia among the most corrupt countries in the world in the latest issue of its Corruption Perceptions Index,

The group blamed the absence of political will in the government for Indonesia's corruption crisis.

This year's corruption index for Indonesia is 1.9 -- the same as last year's. The group gives 10 points to the cleanest countries.

Responding to Megawati's remarks, the secretary-general of TI's Indonesian chapter, Emmy Hafild, said the current administration had done little if anything to combat corruption.

"Megawati does not necessarily have to emulate the Chinese government as our laws could be effective as they are. But her government has done nothing," Emmy told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

By taking no action against corruption, Emmy said Megawati could be considered as having violated the economic rights of people who suffered losses due to corruption.

Law professor Achmad Ali of Hasanuddin University in Makassar, South Sulawesi, said Indonesia needed a "radical" leader to eradicate corruption.

"What I mean by radical is someone who refrains from lip service but rather acts concretely to combat corruption," Ali was quoted by Antara as saying.

"If we prepared coffins for the big-fish corruptors, we would soon get rid of the problem."