Removing anti-graft constraints

Removing anti-graft constraints

From Gatra

Corruption in Indonesia has become a chronic disease, like a tumor that is spreading all over the body and is nearly incurable. Now the government has apparently become serious about dealing with these criminals and needs the support of law enforcers, state agencies and the rest of society to do something about it.

Some time ago, a presidential decree on corruption elimination was issued and the Corruption Eradication Commission was authorized to conduct an anti-graft drive. However, so far big- shot corruptors have not yet been prosecuted or face sanctions because, we are told, because of certain legal "constraints".

In order to overcome these constraints, the government plans to issue a regulation in lieu of law (Perpu) as a breakthrough, to remove all bottlenecks and rules that hamper the handling of corruption cases.

According to the Attorney General for fraud Sudono Iswahyudi, with this Perpu, consent will not be needed from executive and legislative institutions to examine graft suspects who are public officials.

Prosecutors and judges will not find it easy either to postpone the detention of defendants under trial and any delay of detention of defendants will be accompanied by police surveillance to prevent their flight.

In this way, all corrupt officials will hopefully be brought to court and state funds saved for public interests. While disaster-stricken Aceh and Nias badly need assistance, care should be taken that the large amounts of relief aid will not become part of any future irregularities.

HANDIJAYA Tangerang, Banten