M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been very effective from the public relations perspective. In fact, his popularity (or the lack of it) has hinged on the success of his PR campaign. However, he has just made a major mistake by disbanding the Anticorruption Investigation Team (Tipikor).
This was highly regrettable as the anticorruption drive is one of the many reasons, if not the chief reason, for his election in 2004.
Why now, more than ever, has he decided to disband the team, when his corruption eradication campaign has still so far to go.
In fact, the campaign has been put to the test by the controversy surrounding the illegal distribution of non-budgetary funds from the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry. There are now strong suspicions that the President's decision to disband the team is closely related to fears that the war on corruption will eventually intrude into his own domain.
Former maritime affairs and fisheries minister Rokhmin Dahuri claimed that almost all tickets in the last presidential election, the Yudhoyono and Kalla ticket included, received money out of the non-budgetary funds collected by officials at the ministry. Witnesses in Rokhmin's corruption trial have testified under oath that some people close to the Yudhoyono camp also received the money.
It will be a long time before a permanent antigraft body, such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), can launch an investigation into these allegations given its workload.
So why not use an agency that was specifically set up to investigate corruption cases in the government?
A 2005 presidential decree establishing the antigraft team states that it has a mandate to investigate corruption cases in the government and major state enterprises.
So by disbanding the antigraft team now, Yudhoyono has squandered his chances of emerging unscathed by Rokhmin's accusations.
Newly-installed State Minister for State-owned Enterprises Sofyan Djalil recently said his main target would be the privatization of dozens of state companies, many of which are still plagued by corruption. The continued existence of the antigraft would supplement Sofyan's work in creating transparent and corruption-free corporate governance in the public sector that would make these companies more attractive to investors.
Money is not an issue here.
The antigraft team cost peanuts compared to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), for instance. While the latter spends around Rp 100 billion a year, the former spent only Rp 26 billion over two years out of the allocated funding of Rp 42 billion. At this paltry cost, the antigraft team managed to prevent potential losses to the state worth close to Rp 4 trillion.
If the argument for disbanding the antigraft team is to return the responsibility for the antigraft drive to the existing agencies -- the Attorney General's Office, the National Police and the KPK -- Yudhoyono has made an ill-advised decision.
In a campaign to stamp out corruption, we should not be under any illusion that less is more. On the contrary, the more agencies you have, the better it will be.
Besides, the existence of the antigraft team will not in any way create overlapping in campaign as it serves only to coordinate the prosecution of corruption cases as between the AGO, the police and the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).
And given the antigraft team's focus on high-level corruption cases, Yudhoyono would be able to make the headlines even more often by jailing more corrupt executives from state-owned companies, like National Logistics Agency (Bulog) director Widjanarko Puspoyo, and chairman of state-owned occupational insurance firm PT Jamsostek Ahmad Junaidi.
But the damage has been done, and reviving the antigraft team under a new name would only reinforce Yudhoyono's image as a flip-flopper.
Now that one effective antigraft team has been dissolved, the challenge now is how to inject new zeal into the existing agencies that have long been encumbered by red tape.
Yudhoyono said during the ceremony marking the disbanding of the team that the relevant agencies should emulate the antigraft team's effectiveness.
He now needs to give instructions on how this should be carried out.
Technicalities aside, what's essential is his unflinching commitment to stamping out corruption.
With or without the antigraft team, Yudhoyono must make good on what he has said during the election campaign about creating good and clean government.
The writer is a journalist with The Jakarta Post.
