This editorial is admirable in its forthrightness, accuracy and clearheadedness. I hope top-tier government officials are wise enough to listen to its clarity.

If the director-general of air transportation says the Airworthy Certification Directorate (DSKU) has been carrying out its tasks well, then he is either a fool, a liar or completely incompetent.

Either way, he has now proven his blindness to the changes that need to be carried out. Just count the lives lost to work out that equation. And as a consequence of his perception, he is the one who should be dumped overboard at the earliest possible stage.

We need these changes to the DSKU made immediately. Lives are at stake every day here. No one knows when the next air tragedy will occur. Given the pitiful state of aviation governance here and the lack of consideration for human lives by those willing to gamble on the safety of their own countrymen for quick profits, this needs to happen now!

PENAND ME

Jakarta

An excellent editorial, but is anybody listening? Legislative moves to establish an independent aviation regulatory body are a good start.

However, if that simply results in little more than a re-branding of the agency, and the existing corrupt culture is simply transplanted, nothing will have been achieved.

I see too often the establishment of new posts, new agencies (new regencies), but no change in the bureaucratic culture, including the recruitment of corrupt and incompetent staff.

There would be nothing to lose and everything to gain if the legislation stipulated no current or past employee of the existing agency would be eligible for appointment to the new agency.

I would bring in an independent management firm to design and establish the agency, highly competitive recruiting and state-of-the-art accountability systems. And, of course, pay an adequate salary and place senior staff on performance-based contracts. Only with this radical surgery, reform and performance is there a prospect of Indonesian aviation achieving international endorsement.

HADRIAN

Jakarta

This kind of corruption is breathtaking inimmorality. It is inexcusable when politicians to give favors to family members and friends. It is terrible when they steal money from the government and ultimately the public.

And it is reprehensible when politicians take bribes to look the other way so businessmen and criminals can break laws to make greater profits.

But this kind of corruption is so much worse than the other kinds, because lives are literally at stake. The bribes these officials take to allow unqualified, unsafe airlines to operate are essentially blood money, paid for with the lives of innocent travelers.

These corrupt official are murderers in my book, and I would consider the death penalty a viable option for corruption of this kind.

HADITH

Jakarta

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