SBY defends his antigraft record before activists

Graft talks: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (center) speaks at a dialogue on corruption at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday, while Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto (left) and Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin (right) look on. The meeting was aimed at talks with NGOs and antigraft crusaders on how to curb corruption effectively. Antara/Widodo S. JusufPresident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claimed that his government has achieved successes in its antigraft campaign, in spite of a series of public opinion surveys that show that most people believe corruption remains a chronic problem.

“Don’t make judgements based on the number of corruption cases, because some of the cases took place before I entered office but the legal processes were taken during my term,” Yudhoyono said in a meeting with scores of anticorruption activists at the State Palace on Wednesday.

The President said that the surging number of high-profile graft cases exposed by the news media during his term served as an indication that his administration was doing a good job in enforcing the law.

“I can say that no one can escape the law during my term. That is the outcome of my administration’s more aggressive anticorruption efforts,” Yudhoyono said.

After making these remarks, Yu-dhoyono proceeded with a meeting with dozens of anticorruption activists from across the country behind closed doors.

The activists were invited to join the meeting after Yudhoyono initiated a similar meeting in Semarang, Central Java, last month. “I hope this kind of meeting can be held regularly,” Yudhoyono said.

Among the activists attending Wednesday’s meeting were activists from the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Transparency International Indonesia (TII) and the National Secretariat of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Seknas FITRA).

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad, Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) chief Muhammad Yusuf, National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, and
Attorney General Basrief Arief also attended the meeting.

ICW worker Tama Satrya Langkun, who was injured in an assault by a group of armed men on July 8, 2010, was among the activists. The assault is believed to be related to his stance on pushing for an investigation into the suspicious bank accounts of several senior police officers.

Yudhoyono, while visiting Tama in a hospital in Jakarta, appealed to law enforcers to find and punish the perpetrators. No arrest has been made.

ICW coordinator Danang Wido-yoko said Tama planned to use the occasion to remind the President about his promise.

Tama, however, decided not to. “I did not have the chance to talk, because we gave more time to regional activists to air their grievances,” he told The Jakarta Post.

In the meeting, the activists asked Yudhoyono to focus on evaluating the police force and the prosecutor’s offices, institutions deemed among the most corrupt in the country.

Activists also called on the President to clear the way for the KPK to investigate corruption at the two institutions. “We also asked the President to revoke the 2004 presidential decree on vital object security which has been abused by police officials, particularly at local levels, to give legal grounds for gratuities from mining and plantation companies,” he said.

Another issue brought up in the meeting was the requirement to obtain the President’s approval for police and prosecutors to investigate regional leaders, such as governors, regents and mayors, in corruption cases. The KPK, under the 2002 KPK Law, does not have this kind of requirement to probe any state officials.

Yudhoyono, however, played down the issue.

“I never made it difficult. My desk is always clean. I have approved requests to investigate corruption by 168 regional leaders during my term. Seventy-eight of them committed the corruption before my term in office,” he said.

Numerous surveys have shown that public perception of the government’s anticorruption efforts has continued to decline.

A national survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) in December 2011, showed that the public’s faith in the government’s antigraft drive had reached a record low, with only 44 percent of respondents in approval of the government, down from 52 percent in December 2010 and 59 percent the year before.