Witness protection to fight graft
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Welcoming the agreement newly signed by law enforcers to combat mounting graft in the country, anticorruption activists called on Thursday for the establishment of a proper witness protection mechanism and of an independent commission to audit court decisions to support the fight against corruption.
Teten Masduki of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and Albert Hasibuan of the Movement of Concerned Citizens on State Assets (Gempita) said strong political will from the government and the legislature was strongly needed to make the new agreement workable.
"The agreement will be toothless if law enforcement institutions don't have the strong will to implement it," Teten told the Jakarta Post.
Similarly, Albert said that the agreement especially needed endorsement from President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs and its subordinate ministries, including the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), as well as the Supreme Court, signed a joint agreement to mark their commitment to combating graft and carrying out legal reform during a meeting, Law Summit II, on Oct. 16.
Teten noted that the new deal among law enforcers would not produce maximum results unless it was supported by a proper witness protection law and an independent court decision- monitoring commission.
In the absence of witness protection law, Teten said, people with information on graft would not volunteer such information to law enforcers.
Also, without an independent verdict-monitoring commission, corruption in the court would continue unimpeded, he said.
"The Supreme Court and the attorney general must issue a ruling to protect witnesses, including concealing witnesses' identities, before a witness protection law is passed.
"Otherwise, the corruption eradication effort will be useless," Teten said.
The government and the House of Representatives are still deliberating the witness protection bill.
Teten said that the government ought also to set up an independent team, consisting of a number of independent persons, to examine any questionable court decisions.
This way, courts would be monitored, and judges would be made accountable, and most of all, judges could not collude anymore with lawyers.
Teten also suggested that the central bank amend its banking law to give access to independent bodies to examine the bank accounts of state officials.
In addition, Albert demanded that the Attorney General's Office be separated from the government to assure its independence in investigating graft cases, often involving government officials.
"If it is still under the executive (the government), it would be liable to intervention from the government," he said.
Reversal of the burden of proof in corruption cases should also be implemented in the early stage of investigation, not only in the court, he said.