What is the real threat?
What is the real threat?
The Oct. 1 Bali blasts have added to the number of bombs
detonated in this archipelagic country. More and more innocent
people are falling victim to barbaric terrorist acts. But it has
yet to be determined from where the real threat comes.
Hidayat Nur Wahid, the People's Consultative Assembly's (MPR)
speaker, says that the real threat is corruption. It is the dirty
practice of stealing people's money in various forms -- which
causes unending suffering -- that should be eradicated if
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) wants to see no more
threats to Indonesia.
The problem is how to deal with it. SBY has, since taking
office barely a year ago, actually taken great steps to fight
corrupt practices by issuing, for instance, Presidential
Instruction No. 5/2004 on the speeding up of corruption
eradication on Dec. 9, and to give more strength to it he issued
Presidential Decree No. 11/2005 on the formation of an inter-
departmental corruption eradication team on May 2, both of which
the President is spearheading.
His moves have begun producing results, like the Bank Mandiri
and haj funds cases, but it seems that people want to see bigger
fish caught. He must not ease off in the fight against corruption
but find the best method to stamp out this disease, however
difficult.
Nonetheless, many people, including some politicians, are
suggesting that eradicating corruption should start with the
elimination of the "court mafia". Leaving the court mafia intact
would make the fight against corruption useless.
The recent unraveling of a bribery case at the Supreme Court
by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) -- in which Chief
Justice Bagir Manan was allegedly allocated US$500,000 --
indicates how flagrantly such rotten practices take place in this
highest institution of justice.
That such a presumably prestigious institution is so
notoriously slow in producing rulings could be taken as an
indication that it is tainted by such practices. From 1995 up to
August 2005, only eight judicial review dossiers were processed
out of 129, meaning an achievement of a little more than 15
percent. Is it true that "grease money" is required to get it to
speed up rulings?
It is therefore for the KPK to decide whether to investigate
just the "small fish" in the case, or the institution from top to
bottom.
M. RUSDI
Jakarta