Ministers snap antigraft campaign initiated by Kadin

Ministers snap antigraft campaign initiated by Kadin

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Members of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(Kadin)'s Telecommunications and Information Technology
Department signed an antibribery pact on Tuesday, following
Kadin's declaration of a nationwide war against corruption
earlier this month.

The signatories agreed to take an active part in Kadin's
National Campaign Against Bribery from 2003 through 2004 and its
National Movement Against Bribery from 2005 through 2015.

Ai Mulyadi Mamoer, chairman of Kadin's National Campaign Task
Force, said the campaign would focus on urging the business
community to avoid bribery and other kinds of malfeasance.

"We want to fix the situation. We aim to be part of the
solution, not the problem," said Ai.

Ai said the campaign was targeting ministers and government
officials for the first two months, but "so far not a single
minister has shown his or her sincere support".

For Tuesday's pact-signing ceremony, Minister of
Transportation Agum Gumelar and State Minister for Information
and Communications Syamsul Muarif were scheduled to co-sign the
pact but they failed to show up. No official explanation was
given.

Ai said the task force had met with officials from the office
of the state minister for state enterprises. However, officials
in the office said they could not sign the pact due to the
consequences they might have to bear following the signing.

"They said they might not be able to receive a bit from here
and there after signing the pact," said Ai, quoting the
officials, whom he identified only as the state minister's staff
members.

According to Ai, his office sent a letter requesting a meeting
with House commission leaders but had received no response from
legislators.

"We won't push anyone. After all, we are only a moral
movement," he said.

Transparency International has listed Indonesia as the second
most corrupt country in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, and the sixth most corrupt among 133 countries surveyed
worldwide.

Kadin is not the only group frustrated with the government's
lackluster anticorruption campaign.

Earlier, the country's two largest Muslim organizations joined
hands to fight against the culture of corruption.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), with an estimated membership of 40
million, and Muhammadiyah, with about 30 million members, signed
a memorandum of understanding on Oct. 15 on a national
anticorruption movement.

The memorandum of understanding, facilitated by the non-
governmental organization Partnership for Governance Reform, was
signed by NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi, Muhammadiyah chairman Syafii
Maarif and Partnership executive director H.S. Dillon.

People have been demanding the government prosecute large
corrupters since the fall of former dictator Soeharto in 1998,
but few big corrupter have been put behind prison bars.

House Speaker Akbar Tandjung has been sentenced to three years
in jail for his role in a financial scandal involving the
National Statistics Agency.

However, Akbar, who is also chairman of the country's second
largest political party, Golkar, remains free pending an appeal
with the Supreme Court. He is now one of seven presidential
candidates from Golkar, the political party of former president
Soeharto.

The government's ambivalence in the fight against corruption
is also seen in its reluctance to set up a powerful Anti-
Corruption Commission as mandated by the 2002 anticorruption law.

Such a commission was to take over from the police and the
Attorney General's Office the responsibility of handling major
corruption cases.