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.