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