ID Nugroho and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Fri, 11/28/2008 10:47 AM
East Java is a safe haven for corruption and harsher laws and a special provincial anti-corruption court are needed to bring the guilty to justice and change the mentality embedded in Indonesian society that corruption is acceptable, experts say.
Speaking during a discussion on the new anti-corruption draft law with the Indonesian Corruption Watchdog (ICW) in Surabaya recently, coordinator of the East Java anti-corruption Network Zulkarnain and local public figures agreed the harsher law should be endorsed immediately to fight the rampant corruption they said had put the province in a "state of emergency".
Zulkarnain said he regretted the public's lackluster response to the graft as had been indicated by the absence of any militant reaction to incidences of power abuse and the theft of public funds.
Intellectual D. Zamawi Imron, who is chairman of the provincial chapter of the Muslim organization Muhammadiyah Sayafiq Mughni, said the public could not be counted on to reject graft.
They said Indonesia needed a harsher law under a special court to wage war on corruption. He said if the bill were rejected, it would evidence that corruption had contaminated all state institutions.
"Should the bill not be adopted, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will not work optimally and the corruption eradication effort will be merely treading water," said Zulkarnain.
The bill was prepared by the government in review of the 2002 anti-corruption law following the decision by the Constitutional Court to annul Chapter 53 of Law No. 30/2002 on anti-corruption stipulating that graft suspects can be detained without prima-facie evidence.
The law states that a new anti-corruption court, with a dedicated panel of justices, be established by an ad hoc committee, rather than the Supreme Court, which has been the subject of numerous graft cases.
The new law would set severe sentences as punishments for convicted players found to have embezzled more than Rp 1 billion, including the death penalty.
Other punishments mentioned in the bill include 15 years in jail and denied access to positions of power.
Zulkarnain said the House of Representatives should speed up the bill's deliberation so it could be endorsed in April, so that those involved in graft in the province could be quickly brought to justice.
"If the bill is not enacted immediately, the KPK will become frozen and graft suspects will become cash-cows for the police, prosecutors and judges," he said.
Zamawi said the public had been apathetic toward corruption, a sentiment that could only be eradicated with the establishment of a special committee and a special court.
Sayafiq said the nation could not entrust the fight against corruption with common morals or efforts by religious institutions since corruption had become a part of the nation's culture, implicating individuals of all groups and levels in society.
Zamawi and Sayafiq said they were not impressed with the efforts of law enforcers in their investigations into a number of multi-billion rupiah graft cases, including one centering around the embezzlement of Rp 12 billion in Batu, a markup case worth Rp 41 billion involving the Banyuwangi airport project and a Rp 94 billion graft case in Situbondo.
