RI urged to seriously combat corruption

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Foreign creditors grouped in the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI) have reiterated their calls for the government to intensify measures to fight corruption and curb illegal logging, in a bid to restore their confidence in the country.

The call was made during the last day of the two-day CGI meeting here on Thursday, with creditors pledging to hand over a total of US$3.4 billion in new loans and grants.

According to Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh, most creditor countries grilled the government over what they consider to be poor handling of the efforts to eliminate corruption by state officials.

"They asked about our commitment to combat corruption and illegal logging, which often involves key state officials," he said after the meeting.

The creditors, he added, asked if the government was serious in establishing special commissions to supervise the performance of police and prosecutors, and prevent them from conspiring with white-collar thieves and embezzlers.

The absence of sufficient independent supervision has led to these two institutions -- supposedly the front-runners in the campaign against corruption -- to regularly abuse their authority.

"Creditors also questioned the government's time frame in setting up the commissions, as they would be very helpful in 'cleaning out' corrupt law enforcers. We told them that the establishment (of these commissions) would be done soon," Abdul said.

Corrupt practices are common in Indonesia -- the country is one of the most corrupt in the world -- and have flourished for decades at almost every level of government, without signs of abating. It has caused business costs to soar and made the country economically less competitive.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) estimate that up to 30 percent of the country's foreign loans are embezzled by state officials.

Meanwhile, H.S. Dillon, executive director for Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, said at the meeting that most creditors were urging the government to set a deadline for fighting corruption so that they could clearly measure the government's performance in this matter.

"Creditors said that the government needed to put more effort into anti-graft drives, despite forming the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Creditors' confidence in the country will decline unless such issues are resolved," he said.

Neither Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Aburizal Bakrie, nor State Minister of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Board chairwoman, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, acknowledged corruption as the most important issue raised by creditors during the meeting.

"There are no conditions or terms set by creditors for the loans and grants because they are confident that we can eliminate corruption based on our five-year development programs," Mulyani said.

Creditors also urged the government to be serious in its efforts to alleviate poverty and to narrow the gap between the nation's rich and poor in both urban and rural areas, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said.

Aside from that, creditors requested that the government intensify its campaign to reduce mortality resulting from poor public services and malnutrition.

Creditor countries also want the government to reform the security environment by providing police with adequate equipment and skills, said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto.