SBY needs to act faster

SBY needs to act faster

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), during his visit to
Bali last month, said that he wanted corruptors to be punished
severely so that state revenue would be higher, which would help
alleviate poverty (Republika, Feb. 28).

Susilo's statement and his other previous statements -- to a
certain extent -- sound like mere rhetoric, as they have not been
followed up on by his law-enforcement agencies.

Since he announced that Dec. 9 would be the national day for
corruption eradication -- which was followed by Presidential
Instruction No. 5/2004 -- and declared he would personally head
the anticorruption campaign, much to the people's disappointment,
nothing has been achieved to this day. Not a single suspect has
been brought to court so far, aside from the non-active governor
of Aceh, whose trial is underway.

There is actually a good lesson to be learned from South
Korea, whose president also leads the campaign against
corruption. In this case, he chairs a presidential commission to
fight corruption and, in doing this job, he is helped by a police
detachment to conduct investigations.

He presides over a monthly law-enforcement agencies meeting to
evaluate the commission's performance (The Jakarta Post, May 28,
2004). The results have been impressive in that the country's
former president was brought to court and forced to return the
money he allegedly embezzled. Later, he went into self-imposed
exile in the mountains.

Now, as far as Indonesia is concerned, there is no such
presidential commission to fight corruption other than the above
instruction to his aides, e.g. eight ministers up to all
governors, regents and mayors including the law-enforcement
agencies to act together with the existing Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK). This system seems to be too bureaucratic and
takes a long time to produce results, given the many institutions
that are supposedly responsible for eradicating corrupt
practices.

Therefore, there is a need for Susilo to simplify the movement
and he himself should preside over a routine meeting of
law-enforcement agencies -- bi-monthly or monthly and ask the
police to investigate the alleged embezzlers, and punish them
severely if they are proven guilty. In this way, people would see
significant results in the fight against corruption, and his
popularity would rise even further.

M. RUSDI, Jakarta