No plan to replace Rachman: Mega
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite corruption allegations against him, Attorney General M.A. Rachman is likely to keep his post, at least for now, as President Megawati Soekarnoputri has decided to turn a deaf ear to public demands for her hand-picked chief prosecutor to be replaced.
Megawati, speaking to a delegation from the Indonesian Muslim Students Association (PMMI), said on Monday that she had no plans to replace Attorney General Rachman, whose assets were intensely investigated by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN), for allegedly concealing his wealth.
"The Attorney General will not be replaced because even if he is replaced there will be no assurance for any better law enforcement," Megawati was quoted by PMII chairman Nusron Wahid as saying.
Rachman has come under fire for allegedly not reporting his wealth -- namely a house worth billions of rupiah, two cars and a Rp 800 million time deposit account -- to KPKPN, a committee in charge of auditing the wealth of civil servants and high-ranking state officials for possible corruption practices.
In the course of the investigation, Rachman had given conflicting statements, prompting anticorruption campaigners and civil society groups to call for his replacement.
Rachman's aide Kito Irkamini told KPKPN that he helped Rachman transfer the ownership of a luxury house in Graha Cinere, Depok, worth Rp 1.8 billion (US$200,000) to his eldest daughter Chairunnisa.
To the commission, Rachman said that the house belonged to his daughter since July 2001 and he repeatedly changed his statements regarding the financial sources to buy such a luxurious house.
Rachman also changed his explanation on his Rp 800 million time deposit. First he said the money came from a consultancy service offered to a businessman in East Java, but in his latest statement submitted to KPKPN he said that the money came from accumulation of his travel allowance for more than 37 years as a state prosecutor.
Rachman, according to non-governmental organizations, has lost his moral authority to lead the country's fight against corruption.
Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) joined in the calls for her to find a new attorney general.
But according to Megawati, replacing Rachman would make no difference to law enforcement in the country.
According to Megawati, negative reports about Rachman were nothing more than political maneuvers from certain groups, not a sincere attempt to uphold the law.
"The President said that all of those reports against Rachman were merely political maneuvers and not because of the fight against corruption," Nusron said.
Nusron said the President claimed to have urged Rachman to move forward with several corruption cases in the country to settle them soon.
"She said that she had ordered Rachman to quickly settle many corruption cases as part of the government's commitment to fighting such practices," he said.
Her final decision on the matter, which came on the same day that news about her new villa in Sentul, West Java broke out, has dealt a serious blow to all those opposed to the attorney general's replacement, although it is doubtful that they will remain silent.
When asked whether PMII was satisfied with the President's statement regarding the decision on Rachman, Nusron replied: "Of course not, but it was the President's answer."