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Justice for sale
The tape recordings played publicly by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Tuesday at the order of the Constitutional Court sent a chilling shudder through the spine
T
he tape recordings played publicly by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Tuesday at the order of the Constitutional Court sent a chilling shudder through the spine.
This is so despite public knowledge of the sickening state of our judiciary.
Shame on our nation, shame on our country. If the recordings prove to be authentic, they show how rotten some of our top leaders, particularly those at the National Police (Polri) and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) actually are. Their abuse of power, if it turns out to be true, is an insult to all law-abiding officials.
Credit should go to the Constitutional Court head, Mahfud MD, who decided to open the case for the public, and to the people who have exerted strong pressure to reveal the recordings, that proved to contain a scheme to undermine the KPK. Democracy has made what was unthinkable a decade ago possible.
The playing of the tape recordings has defused the tension arising from the nationwide pressure to uncover what they, the public, saw as an attempt by the Polri and the AGO to attack the KPK.
The pomposity of businessman Anggodo Widjojo, the central figure on the tapes, in his dealings with officials from the Polri and the AGO is reminiscent of the Artalita bribery case last year, in which a tape recording of justice being brokered was similarly heard.
Since the Artalita case last year, the suspicion, long harbored by the public, of the existence of the so-called “Court Mafia”, persistently denied by government officials, has proved to be true. They often operate with total impunity and have the power to turn legal decisions upside down.
The mentioning of the name of the President in the recording is worrying and should be investigated, especially because the father of his daughter-in-law was found guilty of bribery by the KPK.
The people who voted for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in July might have thought he was serious in battling corruption, even if it involved his family members, but subsequent events have, at the very least, put this in doubt.
The President remained aloof when the two KPK deputies were detained on bribery charges in September, before quickly moving to replace them.
Mahfud MD has given President Yudhoyono the perfect opportunity to clean up the police and the Attorney General’s Office once and for all. Particularly necessary as the government has planned to increase the salaries of the employees in 11 institutions next year, including these two.
The successful reform of the tax office can serve as an example. A key element in the reform was the right choice of leader, in this case, the Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
We will know where the President stands on this case shortly by watching his follow-up actions. At the very least, the Polri chief and the attorney general should be sacked and those mentioned in the recordings, again if the recordings turn out to be authentic, should be harshly punished.
The hearing of the tape recordings is an essential lesson that everyone, including the President, is equal before the law.
