Susilo seeks clerics' help in graft fight

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Pekalongan

Reiterating his admission that the government's war on corruption was failing to make major progress, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked Muslim clerics on Sunday to help in the fight against the endemic disease.

In a speech to mark the opening of the four-day national congress of Jam'iyyah Ahlith Thariqoh al-Mutabaroh An-Nahdliyah in the Central Java city of Pekalongan, Susilo urged religious leaders to play a more active role in assisting the national antigraft drive.

"For ulemas, particularly members of Thariqoh, I hope they will play a more active role in cleaning the country of corruption," he told thousands of Muslims attending a meeting of the spiritual group affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia.

The President said the clerics should consistently urge their followers to help in the war on corruption, adding that they should also warn government officials against becoming involved in corrupt activities.

Susilo was sworn in as Indonesia's sixth president on Oct. 20, and promised to root out bribery and kickbacks that have poisoned the economy.

In Sunday's speech, he admitted that during his first five months in office attempts to strike hard against corruption had borne little fruit.

Susilo blamed endemic corruption on the "moral crisis" currently plaguing the world's largest Muslim nation, which several international surveys have ranked among the most corrupt.

Signs of the crisis, he said, could be seen in the rampant corruption in government offices at both central and regional levels.

During the reform era, starting with the deposing in 1998 of New Order strongman Soeharto, Susilo said, a series of attempts had been made to eradicate corruption, however the problem was in fact a moral crisis that made it difficult to eliminate in a short time.

Part of the problem was that "those in power who are given people's trust are not keeping the mandate they received, or are even misusing that trust," he added.

Susilo warned that those who committed acts of corruption would sooner or later be punished by God.

He said it would not be easy to win the war on corruption in a short time, as the crime was now deeply rooted in the national culture.

Soon after taking office, Susilo said, the government issued "firmer and stricter" regulations against corruption in an attempt to punish those involved in the crime, despite the fact that the move had not yet produced satisfactory outcomes.

"However, we should never give up the anticorruption campaign," he added.

The President again promised to press ahead with his agenda of ensuring good governance by enforcing the law against white collar criminals over the full term of his presidency.

During Sunday's gathering in Pekalongan, Susilo was accompanied by Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh, Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Under Susilo's rule, there have so far been no big-time white collar criminals sent to jail, although police and prosecutors have been very active in investigating graft cases involving councillors, governors, mayors and regents, as well as other high-ranking state officials.

The government had earlier claimed that the trend for local administration heads and councillors becoming involved in corrupt activities was in decline after a number of them were taken to court, saying it was an indicator of the success of the antigraft drive.