Mixed results in govt's anticorruption campaign

Reiner S., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A massive clean-up of the country, seen by most Indonesians as deeply corrupt after decades of authoritarian rule, has become a top priority of the country's first directly elected president. So far Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's results have been mixed; and there are worrying signs that corrupt forces are fighting back -- and are equally as aggressive.

When the antigraft court delivered in April its first verdict by sending then Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh to ten years in prison for embezzling more than a third of the Rp 12.6 billion in state funds for the purchase of a Russian-made helicopter, there was fresh optimism that authorities were finally serious in tackling the rampant corruption, which has become a major obstacle to luring badly needed investment.

In a further boost to Susilo's antigraft campaign, law enforcement institutions shocked some of the country's erstwhile "untouchables" by unveiling more high-profile graft cases and declaring several greedy state officials, politicians and businesspeople graft suspects. Many others face investigation. The Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta, where four high- profile convicts, including former chief of the state logistics agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang, former minister of trade and industry Rahardi Ramelan, business tycoon Probosutedjo (who is also the half-brother of former authoritarian president Soeharto), and Puteh are now in detention for corruption, may soon have to be refurbished to accommodate other top corruption convicts.

But despite some successful cases, it remains open to question whether Susilo, who has been criticized for his often indecisiveness over a number of crucial issues, will succeed in rooting out corruption, which is deeply entrenched in Indonesian society.

According to Transparency International's 2005 Corruption Perception Index, out of 159 countries surveyed, Indonesia is categorized as the sixth most corrupt country in the world with a score of 2.2, a slight improvement from last year's fifth position and a score of 2.0, but still on par with war-ravaged Iraq.

"In terms of fighting terrorism, the achievements are quite good. But in terms of fighting corruption, (the government) is impotent," said Akil Mochtar, a member of the House of Representatives from the Golkar Party, which officially supports the current administration, during a recent seminar.

The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), an independent graft watchdog, is also starting to question the effectiveness of the antigraft campaign led by Susilo, whose relatively clean image and a strong determination to fight corrupt forces during the presidential campaign had won him the election last year. The results are very minimal, although we have to acknowledge that rooting out corruption is not an easy task," said ICW coordinator Teten Masduki, who won the prestigious 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for his role in helping to curb graft in this country.

Some say that natural and disease-related disasters plaguing the country this year may have somewhat distracted the antigraft drive. But others have pointed out that the aggressive campaign launched by Susilo (with more than 40 speeches delivered in various occasions this year) seems to have had just a slight response from bureaucrats, who have started to regain their old patronage role over the business sector after several years of a consolidation process following the downfall of Soeharto in 1998.

Businesspeople are still complaining about the corruption they have to face at all levels of government. One example, which could be seen as microcosm for the bureaucracy, is that the Jakarta driver's license departments still require bribes to expedite applications.

"The (President's) vision has not been effectively translated into concrete measures (by his subordinates)," said chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Taufiqurrahman Ruki, pointing out the absence of credible measures to boost governance at ministries, state/provincial-owned companies and regional administrations.

Despite a slow-start in 2004, the KPK, whose special prosecutors can investigate alleged misconduct by state officials involving possible losses of more than Rp 1 billion to the state, and have wide-ranging power, have started to unveil and resolve a few high profile graft cases including the Puteh case and the corruption by top officials of the General Elections Commission (KPU) during the implementation of last year's successful elections. It is now collecting evidence to handle the alleged bribery in the judicial system, which may implicate Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan. The KPK is facing tough challenges in investigating this case as evidenced by the initial rejection by Bagir to the summonses made by the commission. He later agreed to be questioned at his own office following intervention from the President.

The inter-departmental, anticorruption team set up by the President himself in a bid to clean up the country, has so far been a little slow in acting. From a target to resolve 16 graft cases at ministries and state-owned companies, the team has so far only managed to start to uncover the abuse of haj pilgrimage funds worth Rp 700 billion by officials at the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has also had a dismal performance. The office claims to have resolved a total of 450 graft cases in the first 10 months of the year, while 15 were suspended due to lack of evidence. But the cases, mostly in regional administrations, are considered petty corruption, with total combined losses to the state of approximately Rp 19 million. It has also resolved the suspicious loan cases at the giant state-controlled Bank Mandiri.

These developments have been a disappointment, ICW's Teten said, pointing out to the huge resources at the AGO's disposal -- a total of 6,000 prosecutors in 350 prosecutors office across the nation.

"Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh is a good person, but he seems to have failed to come up with credible, concrete measures to fight corruption," said one businessman who asked for anonymity. When Susilo appointed the former Supreme Court justice as Attorney General last year, there was a lot of hope among the public that he could help accelerate efforts to root out the endemic corruption in the country.

The only positive achievement so far of the AGO is that the institution no longer seems to have as strong an appetite to freeze high-profile graft cases, ICW said. A total of 43 cases were dropped during the era of previous attorney general MA Rahman.

But there have been strong calls from the public for the AGO to also resolve the massive theft of the state-sponsored bank bailout funds by bankers in the wake of the late 1990s financial crisis, a demand that insiders say is against the wishes of Susilo, who seems to want to move ahead by focusing on eradicating ongoing corruption.

Against this backdrop, there are worrying signs that corrupt forces are fighting back through various means, including bribery, political blackmailing and even physical attacks.

One recent example, is the naming of Khairiansyah Salman, a whistle blower in the KPU corruption case, as a suspect in the haj pilgrimage funds graft case for allegedly receiving Rp 10 million of the funds when conducting an audit at the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Khairiansyah, a former auditor at the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), was named a suspect on Nov. 21, several days after he won the internationally prestigious Integrity Award from Transparency International for his role in uncovering the KPU case. The award was supposed to encourage other people to become whistle blowers and help the KPK uncover graft cases.

The move by the Jakarta High Prosecutors Office to name him a suspect (while in fact other high-profile figures including senior politicians who have illegally enjoyed a greater amount of the religious ministry funds have not even been questioned) has irritated antigraft activists as it would discourage other would- be whistle blowers for fear they could end up like Khairiansyah.

Executive Director of the Indonesian Transparency Society, Agung Hendarto, said that the move against Khairiansyah was part of a grand scenario launched by certain forces to crush the current anticorruption campaign. "This is a drastic setback. We must be vigilant in the years to come. If the anticorruption program is only symbolic in nature, merely aimed at maintaining popularity, but devoid of a true spirit to create good governance, it will not work. If it is not designed as a massive national movement to mobilize all government resources, the public and the business sector, then there may not be significant progress from what has been achieved now," warned ICW's Teten.