PKS prods govt over antigraft drive

PKS prods govt over antigraft drive

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Wrapping up its week-long national conference on Sunday, the
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) criticized President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono's administration for its less than satisfactory
performance in fighting corruption and enforcing the rule of law.

However, the party also said that the policies being carried
out by the current administration were still tolerable as the
economy was not reverting to pre-crisis conditions.

"We hope the administration still has the political will to
improve its policies so as to meet the people's aspirations for
better conditions," PKS president Tifatul Sembiring told the
closing ceremony of the congress that was also attended by
Susilo.

Tifatul said that the party will present a comprehensive
evaluation of the administration's performance in October, the
first anniversary of Susilo's United Indonesian Cabinet.

Highlighting corruption eradication, the Islamic-oriented
party's political statement supported the work of the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) and the interdepartmental antigraft
team, while requesting that the government improve and speed up
its efforts against graft.

"We urge government to improve its efforts, in terms of the
quality of handling the cases, the speed (with which cases are
handled), and the number of cases, so that people will know that
the current corruption eradication campaign is not mere lip
service," Tifatul said, as quoted by Antara.

At the same event, Tifatul's predecessor and current People's
Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid urged the
government to impose harsher penalties for those engaging in
corrupt activities.

"Timely, harsh penalties will prevent lengthy court
procedures, which later on will release corrupt persons. It's
even appropriate to give a death sentence to them, as stated in
Nahdlatul Ulama's edict that allows death penalty for
corruption," he said, referring to the nation's largest Muslim
organization.

Hidayat also suggested cracking down on family members of
corrupt persons in order to spread the national antigraft
campaign.

Cracking down on their family members will be shock therapy
for other corrupt people, he argued. "Often, it is family members
who encourage corruption. If we crack down on family members of
corrupt persons also, then it will become a reminder for others
not to commit similar crimes."

Aside from corruption, the highlight of the PKS' political
statement was its rejection of proposed salary hikes for
legislators and high-ranking government officials including the
president and vice president as well as ministers.

"As the nation is still struggling with the protracted economy
crisis, it's not the right moment and the community will not
accept it," Tifatul said.

The party, however, backed the plan to increase salaries of
low echelon civil servants, and low-ranking military and police
officers, in order to improve their performance.

Government officials and state apparatus were also urged to
embrace a modest lifestyle as a show of their responsibility in
using the people's money, and as a form of empathy towards the
suffering of the people.

Tifatul reiterated PKS' target to be one of the three major
parties after the 2009 general elections, targeting 20 percent of
seats in the House of Representatives.

The PKS won 1.4 million voter in the 1999 general elections,
increasing this to 8.3 million in 2004, representing around 7.3
percent of the total vote and making it the sixth largest party
among the 24 parties that contested that poll.

In the recent direct local elections, the party also won in 40
regions, both independently or through party coalitions.

When closing the PKS' national congress, President Susilo
praised the party for being well mannered and for its ethical
political stances, which he said should be followed by other
parties.