Megawati pledges all-out fight against corruption

Megawati pledges all-out fight against corruption

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a warning to large-scale
corruptors, saying she would continue an all-out battle against
corruption, which she said had blighted the country.

"The main cause of this nation's political and economic
collapse has been widespread corruption, which has become endemic
to our culture. So, there is no alternative but to fight it," the
President said, during the 29th anniversary celebrations of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in
Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, on Sunday.

Megawati called on everybody to join forces to eradicate
corruption, collusion and nepotism so that her government was in
a strong position to maintain the unitary state.

"I call on all the nation's components, especially its
leaders, to jointly uphold the rule of law, political ethics and
better social behavior," said Megawati, who is also chairwoman of
PDI Perjuangan.

Only order and regularity, she said, would be able to save the
nation from the continued crisis.

Megawati recently gave permission to Attorney General
Abdurrahman to hold House Speaker Akbar Tandjung as a suspect in
the Rp 54 billion corruption case concerning the National
Logistics Agency (Bulog). Besides Akbar, former Bulog chief
Rahardi Ramelan and other Bulog officials have also been declared
suspects in the case.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the police arrested 53-year-
old Yohannes Paulus Rio, who brought with him two grenades and a
machete "to greet" Megawati and her entourage.

"The man only brought the explosives and the machete to
attract attention from the crowd," said Sr. Comr. Darman
Sinuraya, chief of Palangkaraya Police.

Rio, who wore an East Timorese costume, was arrested when he,
along with his two daughters, forced their way into the stadium.
He said he had got the two grenades when he was fighting in the
former Indonesian territory.

After the celebrations, the President inaugurated a bridge on
a section of the Trans-Kalimantan Highway. The long-awaited
bridge connects South Barito and North Barito.

During the ceremony, Governor of Central Kalimantan Aswawi
Agani appealed to the President to complete the highway to break
the isolation of hundreds of subdistricts and villages across
Kalimantan.

Accompanying the President on her visit to the province was
her husband Taufik Kiemas, Minister of Resettlement and Regional
Insfrastructure Soenarno, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration
Jacob Nua Wea and Indonesian Military Commander Admiral Widodo
Adi Sutjipto.