Tentacles of corruption

Tentacles of corruption

If only that handful of officials at Pertamina had been honest
about the whole thing from the start, the state-owned oil company
most likely would not have found itself entangled in the
increasingly confounding maze of lies and falsehoods that it now
must unravel. But old habits die hard.

As most of us must know by now, the Pertamina tanker scandal
began innocently enough. Earlier this month, 24 members of House
of Representatives Commission VIII -- several of them accompanied
by their spouses -- went on a brief tour of Hong Kong and South
Korea, ostensibly to study the benefits of selling two very large
crude carriers, known in the oil business as VLCCs, to bidders
there.

The question naturally arose as to who paid for the trip. Word
circulated through the grapevine that Pertamina was "sponsoring"
the trip to influence the legislators into approving the sale of
the tankers. Both the commission members and Pertamina denied the
company paid for the trip -- until newspapers reported the
existence of a Pertamina document confirming the company had
indeed financed the legislators' overseas tour.

Confronted with this evidence, Pertamina conceded, in part,
that it was true. Pertamina, company officials said, was
"lending" money to the House commission to cover half of the
costs of the trip, with the money to be paid back at a later
date.

The oil company was still sticking to this position when a new
piece of damning news broke that it was selling the two VLCCs to
the Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd., which finished second in the
tender for the carriers, thus bypassing tender winner Essar
Shipping Ltd.

It is for the state auditors and perhaps the court of law to
determine the truth behind all of this confusion. According to
the deputy head of the government-sanctioned Corruption
Eradication Commission, Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, the
legislators could be eligible for up to 20 years in prison if
they fail to explain who paid for their overseas trips within 30
days.

In the meantime, with the Pertamina tanker scandal still
unresolved, a new case of suspected corruption on a massive scale
has surfaced, this time involving the illegal import of thousands
of tons of sugar. Implicated in this case are state plantation
company PTPN X, the Association of Village Cooperatives and
possibly a number of officials at the Ministry of Industry and
Trade.

The furor started after the Indonesian Sugarcane Farmers
Association reported to the police last week its discovery of
56,000 tons of smuggled sugar being stored in a warehouse in
Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta. The matter is at present under
investigation, as is the Pertamina tanker scandal.

Given that so many large corruptors continue to escape
justice, however, many people are justifiably skeptical about the
final results of the investigations. Between January 2002 and
April of this year alone, the state is estimated to have lost
about Rp 22 trillion, or US$2.35 billion, to corruption. Only
about Rp 1.2 billion of that amount has been recovered.

People would be excused for assuming that these figures are
highly conservative estimates, since corruption in its many forms
pervades much of life here, from the highest levels of government
down to the village and neighborhood levels.

Unfortunately, without drastic changes there is little hope
that things will be different in the foreseeable future, since
many of the legislators currently sitting in the House are
expected to return when the newly elected House is sworn in later
this year.

Given all this, the best hope Indonesians have of seeing a
better future is through the election of a president and vice
president who are genuinely committed to good governance and
democratic reform. In the end, though, it is up to us to begin
building in earnest a healthy civil society strong enough to
steer the nation in the right direction.