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.