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Jakarta Post

'€˜Jokowi must reassert antigraft commitment'€™

In spite of his misstep in naming graft suspect Comr

Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, January 14, 2015

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'€˜Jokowi must reassert antigraft commitment'€™

I

n spite of his misstep in naming graft suspect Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as the sole candidate for the next police chief, analysts and activists remain hopeful that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo can reassert his commitment to achieving clean governance.

Many have said that Jokowi should learn from his mistake in nominating Budi as the next police chief. Political analyst Gun Gun Heryanto said Jokowi, who was still learning the ropes, should pay close attention to what the public had to say about his decision and actions as it indicated that the people still had high hopes for the President.

'€œJokowi'€™s leadership is based on public trust. Therefore he should be able to manage public trust in the future,'€ Gun Gun said on Tuesday.

'€œJokowi should listen to criticism. He should understand that public support does not only mean giving approval to his policies or decisions, but could also take the form of warnings or criticism,'€ he added.

Gun Gun said that Jokowi should have learned from his experience in dealing with opposition when he appointed NasDem Party-affiliated M. Prasetyo as the new attorney general.

As for his police-chief nomination, Gun Gun said it was also not too late for the President to speak to the public about his moves and reassure them that he was still committed to clean governance.

'€œIt'€™s not too late for him; but, Jokowi must be able to follow up because people will now closely watch his next steps,'€ Gun Gun said.

Gun Gun said that Jokowi could win back public trust by withdrawing Budi'€™s nomination in order to avoid a tangled mess at the House of Representatives, should he press ahead with the nomination of Budi.

Although the House has yet to review Budi'€™s record, lawmakers have given early signs of approval, leading to increased opposition from civil-society organizations.

Speculation was rife that Jokowi bowed to political pressure in nominating Budi, who was a former adjutant of Megawati Soekarnoputri when she was president between 2001 and 2004, as other three-star generals had been recommended by the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), which has the authority to recommend police-chief candidates to the President.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad denied suggestions that the KPK'€™s move to name Budi a suspect might have been politically motivated, as the antigraft agency named him a suspect shortly after Jokowi submitted his nomination letter to the House for endorsement on Friday, and just days before the police general'€™s scheduled confirmation hearing before the House'€™s Commission III overseeing legal affairs and laws, human rights and security on Jan. 14.

Separately, Agus Sunaryanto, a deputy coordinator at antigraft watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), which has repeatedly raised objections to Budi'€™s nomination, said that Jokowi could learn from the current mishap by involving antigraft bodies in vetting candidates for public office.

'€œWe hope that Jokowi will involve the KPK and the PPATK [Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre], and probably the directorate general for taxation, in any similar nomination of public officials in the future,'€ Agus said.

Regardless of the police-chief nomination stumble, State Secretary Pratikno said Jokowi remained committed to upholding clean government and continued his support for corruption eradication.

'€œOf course it remains the same; he has an undeniable commitment to the antigraft campaign,'€ Pratikno said, adding that Jokowi always respected the work of independent institutions like the KPK.

Other civil-society organizations, including the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) and the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), also urged Jokowi to listen to input from the public and drop Budi'€™s nomination.

'€œIf Jokowi presses ahead with his nomination of Budi, the public will seriously question the credibility of his law-enforcement agencies,'€ the ICJR said in a statement.

Gerindra Party politician Desmond Mahesa said he doubted Jokowi'€™s competence in selecting individuals for key government positions.

'€œThis proves that he [Jokowi] is inconsistent. He should have involved the KPK and the PPATK in the process of selecting candidates, like he did in the process of selecting his ministers,'€ Desmond said.

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