War on graft not over yet

Endy M. Bayuni, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post

The House of Representatives may have terminated one battle against corruption by voting down the Buloggate II inquiry, but the war against corruption is not over yet by a long shot.

If there is any lesson to be learned from this Buloggate II episode, it is that we can no longer count on the House, nor the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri for that matter, to wage the war against corruption, collusion and nepotism on our behalf.

But as the saying goes, it ain't over till the fat lady sings. From now on, possibly until we elect a more pro-reform government after the 2004 general election, we will have to wage the war practically by ourselves.

There's no doubt however that losing the Buloggate II represents a major set back for the reformation movement, and a victory for the anti-reformist camp.

The vote effectively ended the campaign to investigate allegations of corruption against Speaker Akbar Tandjung, supposedly committed in 1999 while he still served as the state secretary under then president B.J. Habibie.

Akbar is currently standing trial in the Rp 40 billion ($4 million) graft case, although he remains free to go about his daily business, including leading the House and his Golkar Party.

But some members of the House have been entertaining the idea of launching a separate political inquiry, feeling that the court trials alone will not be enough to reveal any ethical violations or even possible criminal acts committed by Akbar.

The background to this inquiry was the allegation that Rp 40 billion belonging to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) was used to finance political parties during the 1999 elections.

The campaign started in October with a petition by 50 House members calling for a special inquiry.

The scandal was immediately dubbed Buloggate II to distinguish it from the Buloggate I scandal that ultimately brought down President Abdurrahman Wahid in July of last year.

For the past nine months, the nation has been debating the pros and cons of such an inquiry. The House held four plenary sessions debating the issue before it put it to a vote on Monday.

In retrospect, those lengthy debates, the many seminars, the endless radio and television talk shows, and the hundreds of articles and editorials written on the subject all seem like a big waste of time now, considering the outcome. The House could have spared the nation precious hours and resources had it rejected the planned inquiry right from the start.

As such, Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which had enough clout to ensure that the inquiry was launched, wavered during the debate, keeping the issue constantly on the front burner of the national political agenda.

On Monday, when the matter was finally put to a vote in the House, the majority of the PDI Perjuangan abstained, effectively killing once and for all the debate, which has been part and parcel of the national campaign to end graft in the country.

While the episode has been a wasteful exercise, it has taught us that neither the House of Representatives nor the Megawati administration have the strength or the political will to do what is needed to end the corruption that has brought the country to its present state of near bankruptcy.

The way the Buloggate II campaign was terminated shows that just about every politician is now more concerned about his seat, more specifically about the 2004 elections. They certainly have abandoned any notion of eradicating corruption, although that was the campaign platform on which they were elected in 1999.

The PDI Perjuangan's excuse for abstaining during Monday's vote -- that it was satisfied with the ongoing legal proceedings against Akbar -- was another attempt to gloss over the real reason: A political deal with Akbar Tandjung's Golkar Party not to upset the state of things before 2004. Being the second largest faction in the House, Golkar has used its clout effectively against Megawati's administration and her PDI Perjuangan to make sure that the Buloggate II inquiry never got off the ground.

The current legal proceedings against Akbar are not likely to lead to anything substantial about his role in the Bulog scandal because the government prosecutors have, from the outset, made it clear that they were not interested in where the Rp 40 billion went. The dossier against Akbar was limited to his ability to account for the money; now that the money has been "returned" to Bulog, the prosecutors have virtually no case.

If that's the way the government prosecutors deal with allegations of corruption, it is no wonder that KKN remains rampant. The judicial system has also a lot to answer for as regards the nation's constant failure to punish corruptors. But that is another subject for debate for another time.

For now, the House, particularly Megawati's PDI Perjuangan, has again let the nation down. Many people voted in the 1999 general election hoping that these elected representatives, and PDI Perjuangan in particular, would take the lead in eradicating corruption in Indonesia once and for all.

In spite of the people's mandate, their record on this front has been so meager and disappointing that the public are starting to lose their trust in House members. Buloggate II could have turned things around. Alas, the honorable members decided to squander that opportunity.

All is not lost, however. The reform movement may have conceded one battle, but not the entire war against corruption.

On the contrary, this episode has allowed the public to distinguish the real reformers from the phony ones. Since every politician seems to be preoccupied with 2004, we too should gear ourselves for that year and make sure that we use our ballot paper wisely and effectively. From the Buloggate II episode, we have to make sure that we send the real reformers to Senayan.