What will become of Indonesia when the very people who should be enforcing and administering the law have turned the idea of justice into their mere plaything?
Gayus H. Tambunan, the former low-level tax officer at the center of a major corruption scandal, has (again) created an uproar after it was learned that officials gave him a passport, apparently under a false name, that allowed him to travel abroad.
The revelation comes on top of another scandal reported by Tempo magazine, which said that Gayus traveled to Macau and Malaysia in 2010 while he was supposed to be in police detention. That follows yet another incident, when Gayus (by his own admission) left the Mobile Brigade’s detention center in Depok in November to watch a tennis tournament in Bali.
While Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar confirmed that a passport had been issued, the National Police have denied that Gayus left the country under their watch.
This week we also learned that a woman named Kasiem, who was scheduled to serve three-and-a-half months on corruption charges, got her neighbor Karni to serve in her place for Rp 10 million (US$9,000). The case only came to light when someone paid a visit to Kasiem at Bojonegoro Penitentiary in East Java, only to find Karni.
These two scandals at the start the New Year go directly to the credibility of our justice system. How should people feel when they see that those who are most responsible for the enforcement and administration of the law are making a mockery of justice?
When credibility goes, so does people’s faith in and respect for justice. Ever wonder why this country at times seems to border on anarchy? There’s your answer.
Typically, the reaction of those responsible for the scandals, and we refer here to the officials rather than Gayus or Kasiem, has been to deny or pass the buck.
Patrialis, whose ministry oversees the prison system, said Kasiem’s case was the responsibility of the Attorney General’s Office. And we know how the police have denied Gayus’ foreign sojourns, the same way they had earlier denied that he had gone to Bali, only to eat their words when Gayus himself confessed.
We have seen this all before. They make light or dilute the seriousness of the case in order to cover their own backs. But it is the President’s backside that will be kicked by the public eventually, unless the officials own up to their mistakes. There is a limit as to how far the public can tolerate travesties of justice that reflect how corrupt the entire justice system is. Corrective measures must be implemented by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to restore people’s confidence in the law.
Strong and credible law enforcement is an essential element in democracy. This seems to be missing and it is undermining Indonesia’s struggle to build democracy. We should give Yudhoyono a strong kick in the backside to get his act together. First and foremost, he has to fire those top officials who have marred the face of justice.
