T

he government and civil society have placed their hopes in the public to help eradicate corruption following a presidential instruction that is expected to open access to public participation.

“Corruption prevention will be most effective if the people themselves move to take part willingly, which would later be matched by the government’s efforts,” Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of Presidential Working Unit for Supervision and Management of Development (UKP4), told an anticorruption forum in Jakarta on Tuesday.

“We need to create a system in which the people can convey or report violations so people can actively engage in the efforts,” he said. “The government has made enough efforts so that the pressure must now come from the public,” he said.

He said the current system was “poor enough to make room for corruption”, and that the new measure would definitely open public access in monitoring government efforts to improve the current system.

He said the current system did not have a sufficient public complaint handling procedure, which he added was important for prevention. “All this time the system has been blind to complainants and has not kept track of their reports. Moreover, it does not acknowledge whistle-blowing.”

Last month, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued an instruction titled Action Plan to Prevent and Eradicate Corruption, which focused on improving anticorruption systems used by government institutions, especially the National Police, the Attorney General’s Office, the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Taxation Directorate at the Finance Ministry.

Critics say the government has failed to achieve anything significant with two the previous instructions it has issued on corruption eradication.

In January, Yudhoyono signed a presidential instruction focusing on accelerating investigations of tax fraud cases and corruption at the tax office. The instruction was issued in the wake of a highly publicized tax graft case centering on former tax official Gayus H. Tambunan, which implicated law enforcement officials, a judge and senior tax officials.

Kuntoro, whose office is mandated to monitor the implementation of action plans in each government institution and report to the President, backed the government’s plan instead.

For example, he added, by December the police will have a standard for complaint handling procedures that will be in line with freedom of information laws. “We will have clear information and standards for the land licensing and passport procedures,” he said.

Vice President Boediono, who was appointed to lead and monitor the implementation of both instructions, pleaded for civil society support as well.

National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Nanan Sukarna said in the forum, which consists of NGO activists, experts, and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), that his office targeted to complete the instructions by December.

The two-day forum, established in 2010 by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in support of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), aims to discuss strategies and problems to address the 2011 Presidential Instruction.

Despite doubts, the forum urged the government and all related institutions to achieve the target.

“It’s a bold move by the government considering they have only seven months to meet the target. But, I’d appreciate and support it because it is intended to establish a firm cornerstone for the next years,” Teten Masduki of the TII said.