KPK fights graft, SBY reaps gain

Irawaty Wardany and Dwi Atmanta ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 12/22/2008 11:04 AM  |  Review & Outlook

A few months before former maritime and fisheries minister Rokhmin Dahuri stood trial for allegedly misappropriating his office's non-budgetary funds last year, a Golkar lawmaker said the case would open a Pandora's box.

Indeed, the media in particular and those who followed the trial were flabbergasted by the stack of surprising facts that came out during Rokhmin's trial in the Corruption Court.

One of Rokhmin's aides testified that the non-budgetary funds had gone to the country's top political figures or institutions linked to them. Some ultimately admitted to accepting the money, including former People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amin Rais and senior Golkar lawmaker Slamet Effendy Yusuf, but most of those implicated denied the allegations.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) questioned Slamet and four other lawmakers, but the investigation headed nowhere. Public enthusiasm faded when the scandal wound down and Rokhmin took the responsibility alone.

But the Rokhmin saga paved the way for a crackdown on corruption within the legislature, which many claimed was widespread but difficult to prove as no transactions involved bank transfers, which are traceable.

Indeed, prominent corruption watchdog Transparency International Indonesia found in its perception index survey that the House of Representatives and political parties were viewed as among the most corrupt institutions in the country.

A change of guard at the KPK marked the start of the clampdown on legislative corruption in 2008, as if new chief Antasari Azhar had set out to prove the doubters and critics wrong.

In the first year of Antasari's tenure, the KPK arrested six active House lawmakers from various parties for alleged bribery and extortion. Two of them, Saleh Djasit of the Golkar Party, and Sarjan Taher of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, were convicted and sentenced to four years and 18 months in jail, respectively; trials of the rest will follow soon.

"The KPK's bold action was beyond our expectation," says Mohammad Sobary, who chairs the Partnership for Governance Reform. "We were surprised by the series of arrests, which we believe will restore public trust in law enforcement in this country."

Founded in 2000 with multiple donors, the Partnership was the brains behind the birth of the KPK as a driving force for the anti-corruption campaign in place of the Attorney General's Office (AGO), which many claim is resisting reform and infested with corruption itself. Perhaps few people realize that Yudhoyono was one of the Partnership's founding members.

Hope abounded that the KPK would clean up the AGO after the arrest and conviction of prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan for accepting a US$660,000 bribe from a businesswoman linked to a tycoon; the investigation into the tycoon's involvement in a major graft case was dropped by the team Urip led.

Urip's trial turned out to be a showcase of law enforcers' vulnerability to corruption. Urip was among those on a short-list of prosecutors who had passed the integrity test required by the AGO in order to handle major corruption cases related to the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) fund.

The KPK was on the right track because the Urip trial revealed traces of systemic corruption within the AGO. It was disappointing, however, that the KPK appeared to stop at Urip, while at the same time the AGO reshuffled its high-ranking officials connected to the graft case.

Public pressure on the KPK to take over the BLBI cases from the AGO mounted after Urip was sentenced to 20 years in jail, but a takeover is not likely to materialize any time soon because of the tough ongoing negotiations between the KPK and AGO.

Sobary says the KPK has emerged as a powerful yet credible and reliable law enforcement agency -- so powerful there have been political moves to discourage KPK efforts.

The House is currently deliberating the government-sponsored Corruption Court bill, which, it is feared, could revive conventional ways of combating corruption. The bill reinstates the power of district court chiefs and career judges, at the expense of ad hoc judges, dismissing the fact that the judicial reform has made little progress.

If the bill is passed, probably in January, a corruption court will be established in each regency under the direct control of the local district court.

Like it or not, the KPK has restored both domestic and international trust in the country's commitment to the fight against corruption, which was proclaimed at the beginning of reform movement in 1998.

A recent survey by Transparency International fueled the optimism. Of 180 countries surveyed, Indonesia was ranked 126th with a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 2.6, up from 2.3 in the 2007, which placed the country at a low 143rd.

Transparency International Indonesia chief Todung Mulya Lubis attributed the improvement to the KPK's aggressive campaign.

The KPK proved its policy of non-discrimination when it arrested former Bank Indonesia deputy governor Aulia Pohan, the father-in-law of President Yudhoyono's eldest son Agus Harimurti, for his alleged role in the misappropriation of Rp 100 billion in BI funds, a case that sent former BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah to jail.

Critics said the arrest was simply one of Yudhoyono's campaign gimmicks ahead of the 2009 election, in which he will run for reelection.

The government has denied the allegations, which by normal standards seem too much. Yudhoyono admitted to having been shocked by the arrest; perhaps he had never thought the anti-corruption drive would exact such a high price.

Yudhoyono looked offended when a journalist sought his comment on Aulia's arrest on the sidelines of a tree-planting campaign in Bogor early in December. Presidential security details interrogated the journalist afterward.

But Yudhoyono cannot dismiss accusations that he has benefited from the anti-corruption campaign, which he once promised to lead. A recent opinion poll revealed a surge in his popularity among voters following the infamous arrest.

With the elections fast approaching, Yudhoyono does not need spare time and energy to defuse the allegations.

He needs only to show his commitment to the anti-graft campaign, first of all, perhaps, by encouraging the KPK to take over the BLBI cases and revoking articles in the Corruption Court bill that may weaken the KPK.

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