RI under pressure over corruption
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A United Nations official warned on Thursday that Indonesia must take serious action against corruption otherwise the country would have to face the possibility of concerted measures being taken by the international community.
Deputy Director of the United Nations Center for International Crime Prevention (UN-CICP), Jan Van Dijk, said that under the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, corruption was an international crime in respect of which the international community could exert pressure with the goal of corruption eradication.
Article 8 of the convention stipulates that all countries in the world should take concerted action to curb corruption.
Indonesia was among the first countries to sign the convention, and is now taking part in talks on a new UN convention on the retrieval of corruption-generated assets.
"Indonesia must allow the international community to take a look at what has been done in the fight against corruption," Van Dijk said, adding that corruption was a crime that had damaged the economies of many developing countries.
The House of Representatives, however, has yet to ratify the convention.
National Legal Reform Agency chief Romli Atmasasmita said now that Indonesia had signed the convention, it must take resolute action to curb rampant corruption.
"Under the convention, Indonesia is required to submit a progress report to the UN pertaining to the eradication of corruption," Romli said adding that the international community was keeping a watchful eye on Indonesia's anticorruption campaign.
The Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, ranks Indonesia as having being among the most corrupt countries in the world over the past few years.
Romli said that should Indonesia fail to submit an acceptable report, the country would face the possibility of UN sanctions.
"If we fail to make significant progress in dealing with corruption, we will have no way of recovering fraudulently obtained assets kept in foreign banks," Romli said.
Indonesia enacted an antigraft law in 1999, but enforcement of the legislation has been weak to say the least.
The United Nations itself has joined hands with the Indonesian government in an effort to combat unbridled corruption.
"We will embark on a program called "Judicial Integrity" to promote fair proceedings in the courts," Van Dijk remarked.
He said that the program was aimed at improving the integrity of judges as it was public knowledge that the judicial system here was rotten to the core.