'Public urged to combat KKN'
'Public urged to combat KKN'
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Demands for public participation should increase to keep the
reform movement going forward, and particularly to combat
corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN), experts said on
Wednesday.
Chairman Todung Mulya Lubis of the Supervisory Board of
Transparency International Indonesia said public involvement was
mandatory to monitor KKN, which was on the rise at national and
provincial levels.
"Public participation must be increased to bring changes to,
among others, the existing rulings regarding corruption, to
enforce good record keeping systems, to demand access to
information and to create a code of conduct for public officials
as well as businesses," he said.
He was addressing participants of a symposium on public policy
and its challenges here.
Todung said that public participation at the national level
was quite strong through civil society movements, but it remained
weak on the local level despite the autonomy era.
The autonomy laws had given the regency or mayoralty
administration officials more opportunities to enrich themselves,
he added.
Another speaker, legislator Harry Akhmadi from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) also said the
reformists needed dialog among various parties including central
and regional authorities, civil society groups and the business
community.
"What is needed in the future is a process of consensus
building through democratic consolidation among those parties,"
he said.
He said there was an increasing trend that executive,
legislative and judicial power at the regency or mayoralty
levels, expected to deliver public services to the people, were
becoming more absorbed in power struggles.
At the provincial levels, governors no longer had the
authority to coordinate either regencies or mayoralties, creating
more trouble, he added.
"At the end of the day, the interests of society are
sacrificed...," he said.
Harry admitted that in the short run, a possibly unstable
political situation would prevail, but he hoped it would not hurt
economic reform.
Indonesia's reform era began following the fall of President
Soeharto in mid-1998 due to the severe economic crisis and
oppression by the government.
A number of reform movement issues, including KKN eradication,
decentralization of power from the central government to regional
administrations were declared at that time to help rebuild the
country.
But now, many believe that the situation had become far worse
than the Soeharto era as KKN was increasing in many sectors.
Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, noted lecturer from the University of
Indonesia said that for legal reform to take root, a strong and
visionary leader was necessary to lead the reform agenda.
"The leader must be able to work for the people not only for
his or her own group, so that he or she can be emulated by
Indonesian people," she said.
She also said public participation was needed to carry out
reform legislation.
The other factors needed for legal reforms were to provide a
coherent, clear, inviolable, synchronized law with strong
regulations that were supported by professional legal personnel,
she added.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Demands for public participation should increase to keep the
reform movement going forward, and particularly to combat
corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN), experts said on
Wednesday.
Chairman Todung Mulya Lubis of the Supervisory Board of
Transparency International Indonesia said public involvement was
mandatory to monitor KKN, which was on the rise at national and
provincial levels.
"Public participation must be increased to bring changes to,
among others, the existing rulings regarding corruption, to
enforce good record keeping systems, to demand access to
information and to create a code of conduct for public officials
as well as businesses," he said.
He was addressing participants of a symposium on public policy
and its challenges here.
Todung said that public participation at the national level
was quite strong through civil society movements, but it remained
weak on the local level despite the autonomy era.
The autonomy laws had given the regency or mayoralty
administration officials more opportunities to enrich themselves,
he added.
Another speaker, legislator Harry Akhmadi from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) also said the
reformists needed dialog among various parties including central
and regional authorities, civil society groups and the business
community.
"What is needed in the future is a process of consensus
building through democratic consolidation among those parties,"
he said.
He said there was an increasing trend that executive,
legislative and judicial power at the regency or mayoralty
levels, expected to deliver public services to the people, were
becoming more absorbed in power struggles.
At the provincial levels, governors no longer had the
authority to coordinate either regencies or mayoralties, creating
more trouble, he added.
"At the end of the day, the interests of society are
sacrificed...," he said.
Harry admitted that in the short run, a possibly unstable
political situation would prevail, but he hoped it would not hurt
economic reform.
Indonesia's reform era began following the fall of President
Soeharto in mid-1998 due to the severe economic crisis and
oppression by the government.
A number of reform movement issues, including KKN eradication,
decentralization of power from the central government to regional
administrations were declared at that time to help rebuild the
country.
But now, many believe that the situation had become far worse
than the Soeharto era as KKN was increasing in many sectors.
Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, noted lecturer from the University of
Indonesia said that for legal reform to take root, a strong and
visionary leader was necessary to lead the reform agenda.
"The leader must be able to work for the people not only for
his or her own group, so that he or she can be emulated by
Indonesian people," she said.
She also said public participation was needed to carry out
reform legislation.
The other factors needed for legal reforms were to provide a
coherent, clear, inviolable, synchronized law with strong
regulations that were supported by professional legal personnel,
she added.