Susilo seeks clerics' help in graft fight

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.