Website seeks to shame graft convicts online

Indonesians will soon have a chance to revisit the nation’s most infamous graft convicts — as images and information on the scofflaws have been incorporated into a online encyclopedia.

The website, to be launched formally on June 12, was titled “Korupedia” and billed as an encyclopedia of Indonesia’s corrupt, Teten Masduki, one of the site’s founders and Transparency International Indonesia’s (TII) secretary-general, said on Friday.

Teten said that TII, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Air Putih Foundation, among others, developed the website so that people would never forget the names of the nation’s corrupt.

“One should not forget those wicked individuals who have dragged this country down,” Teten told The Jakarta Post.

Wawan Suyatmiko, a database manager for TII, said that, for now, Korupedia would only document corruptors whose convictions had been upheld by the nation’s final court of appeals, the Supreme Court.

On the site, www.korupedia.org, readers can find relevant information on graft convicts, including their police mug shots at the time of their arrest.

The infamous individuals listed on the website as of Friday include former tax official Gayus H. Tambunan, businesswoman Artalyta Suryani and former Subang regent Eep Hidayat.

In addition, the website has been aggregating graft-related news from online media and maintains a Twitter account, @korupedia.

Wawan said that the database team had collected information for dozens of corruptors convictedbetween 2000 up until this year.

“We are hoping to reach a minimum of 100 names of corruptors by Tuesday. The list will be updated daily to ensure that readers will not be bored,” Wawan said.

“We will also try collect data from graft cases back in the 1980s and 1990s.”

Separately, Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas applauded the idea of a virtual wall of shame, saying that the website would help the public better understand corruption cases.

“University-based studies are not good enough, due to the small numbers of researchers focusing on investigating graft cases,” Busyro told the Post.

Another KPK deputy chairman, Bambang Widjojanto, also praised the website, saying that “any attempt to fight corrupt officials must be appreciated.”

ICW reported that graft cases caused Rp. 2.17 trillion (US$232.19 million) in state loses in 2011, and had involved 1,053 suspects and implicated officials from both the central and regional government, lawmakers at the House of Representatives, business executives and directors of state and regional owned companies. (asa)