N

ov. 23, Online

The public in Aceh is reeling following the arrest of the sharia police chief for alleged corruption, with the provincial administration promising harsh action should the chief be found guilty.

Aceh Public Order and Sharia Police chief Khalidin Lhoong allegedly used a proportion of the salaries of non-permanent public order and sharia police officers to pay for their sportswear and urine-test kits, as opposed to requesting extra funds from the provincial administration.

Your comments:

An important piece of reporting is missing here. Is there an official budget for urine tests, sportswear and printers? If so, what happened to that money?

It may still be wrong but it is an entirely different story, if there is in fact no such budget and he really used the money for these things only.

Kantisi

This has the smell of a political beat up. Sharia law is Aceh'€™s business but where public money is concerned, budgets and expenditure to support those laws must be corruption-free.

It sounds like the chief and his administrator should have employed fewer people to free up the required funds. That they chose to reduce salaries instead is certainly wrong but is not corrupt.

This is hardly a unique situation in Indonesia and characterizing it as corruption is a big stretch. The normal way of solving the '€œno budget for sports uniforms'€ problem, outside of Aceh, is to hit local businesses for donations and that, while often being well intended, does regularly lead to corruption.

Riander

The way I read it, there is no budget for the sportswear or urine tests. While I am generally opposed to the enactment of any religious laws, it sounds like the corruption charges are a stretch.

Kortsle

I quote: '€œMeanwhile, Saifuddin Bantasyam, a sociologist and legal practitioner at Syiah Kuala University, said national law would be applied in this case rather than Islamic law, which stipulates that a thief '€” if proved guilty '€” would have a hand cut off.'€

I think he deserves sharia law!

Balistar