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n a year punctuated with messy corruption cases, shifting terror tactics and persistent attacks against minorities, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s claims of government successes outnumbered his avowal of inadequacies in his latest state address.

Upholding justice and the rule of law, Yudhoyono admitted, “remains a great challenge”, as he delivered his state address in front of lawmakers and regional representative councils at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, one day before Indonesia marked its 66th Independence anniversary on Aug. 17. However, Yudhoyono abstained from expounding areas where law and justice have been poorly implemented.

Human rights activists recently cried out against the light sentencing of 12 defendants involved in a deadly attack against members of an Ahmadiyah community in Cikeusik, West Java, in February. Three Ahmadis died in the brutal onslaught.

Yudhoyono instead spoke of the government’s “continuous fight” to save Indonesian migrant workers from harsh punishments for committing various crimes overseas.

One of the efforts included enforcing a moratorium on sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia and drafting a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with several countries on migrant worker protection, he said.

An Indonesian migrant worker, Ruyati binti Satubi, was executed by the Saudi Arabian government after being convicted of killing her male employee.

The government implemented a moratorium on sending migrants to Saudi Arabia following the execution, which Yudhoyono said “scathed our emotions”.

In addition, the government has formed a task force trusted with aiding migrant workers caught in legal problems.

“Our efforts have borne fruit,” he said. “Several Indonesians facing the death penalty received clemency or lighter charges.”

The government saved Darsem, who was placed on death row after being convicted of murdering her employer, by paying Rp 4.7 billion (US$554,600) in “blood money” to the family of the employer.

However, at least 27 other Indonesian migrant workers are on death row in Saudi Arabia.

On the fight against corruption, the President said that “we have to work harder to significantly augment the corruption index in the future”.

Several corruption cases, implicating key government and political figures, have surfaced this year.

Muhammad Nazaruddin, a graft suspect who was the former treasurer for the President’s Democratic Party, claimed that party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, party lawmaker Angelina Sondakh as well as Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Andi
Mallarangeng colluded to misappropriate funds in a SEA Games project worth Rp 191 billion.

However, Yudhoyono added that Indonesia’s Corruption Perception Index ranking “continues to pick up”.

“Transparency International awarded us a 2.0 score in 2004, which improved to 2.8 in 2010,” he said. “Although the increase was 0.8, it is the highest among ASEAN countries.”

He added that the government must continuously reinforce and support the efficacy of anticorruption institutions, including the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Nazaruddin claimed that KPK officials, including Chandra M. Hamzah and Ade Rahardja, tried to fix the SEA Games case in return for support for their chairmanship. The allegations have cost them their candidacy for chairmanship.