JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono came to power a year ago after a
landslide victory with promises to fight rampant
corruption. His unprecedented campaign has rooted
out small-time corruption as well as major graft
involving top government officials, legislators
and officials in state-owned companies and banks.
His 51-member Corruption Eradication Commission
(KPK) has already snared several high-profile
offenders.
Yet, as if emphasizing the
never-ending variations of corruption and the
extent of the problem in the country, Indonesia's chief
justice last week
faced calls for his resignation after a
half-brother of former president Suharto claimed
he was "blackmailed" by the "judicial mafia" in
the country's highest legal institution.
Probosutedjo, whose appeal is being heard
by a panel of three Supreme Court judges led by
Chief Justice Bagir Manan, made the allegation
after the KPK questioned him over the scandal. He
claimed he had set aside a huge bribe that his
lawyer, a former high court judge had urged, in
order to win his appeal against a jail sentence
handed down by the lower courts.
He was
convicted of abusing reforestation funds and
sentenced to four years in jail by the Central
Jakarta District Court in 2003. The Jakarta High
Court later reduced the term to two years.
Probosutedjo was implicated in the bribery case
after the KPK arrested his lawyer, Harini Wiyoso,
and five Supreme Court officials for alleged
involvement in the scam.
Probosutedjo said
so far he has paid Rp16 billion (US$1.5 million)
to three courts dealing with his corruption case:
Rp10 billion to the Central Jakarta District Court
and Jakarta High Court as well as Rp6 billion to
the Supreme Court, of which Rp5 billion was to go
to Manan and the remaining Rp1 billion was to be
divided among other Supreme Court officials, he
said. Manan denies the allegations, describing
them as a desperate move by someone who could face
a severe sentence if convicted. Probosutedjo has
neither been detained, nor declared a suspect.
Munarman, a director of the Indonesian
Legal Aid Foundation (LBHI), said corruption in
the country's judiciary system is rampant,
affecting about 60% to 70% of court officials. He
said corruption kicks in "when someone reports a
case to the police who then submit it to the
prosecutors until the case reaches the court and
there is the wait for a verdict", he explained.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Commission, set up
to supervise judges and put a stop to rampant
corruption in the courts, has demanded that Manan
step down. Its chairman, Busyro Muqqodas, said
Manan must do the honorable thing and resign
because he had been linked to the Supreme Court's
"judicial mafia".
The KPK works in tandem
with a special anti-corruption court established
to fast-track sensitive cases. The two have been
busy.
The court in April sentenced the
governor of Aceh, Abdullah Puteh, to 10 years in
prison in a graft case involving the purchase of a
Russian-made helicopter. KPK investigators caught
his lawyer red-handed allegedly trying to bribe
two court clerks of the Jakarta High Court to get
the sentence reduced.
Also, the chairman
of the Elections Commission (KPU) and its
treasurer are on trial for receiving kickbacks
from companies that won tenders to supply election
materials. And the former minister for religious
affairs is on trial for a scandal involving state
funds for the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and
could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
The commission is also investigating
serious graft cases in state-owned enterprises
including the oil and gas giant, Pertamina; the
electricity utility, PLN; the insurance company,
PT Jamsostek; the cement firm, PT Pupuk Kaltim;
the State Secretariat; the Ministry of Defense;
and the Ministry of Health. A crude oil smuggling
ring involving Pertamina officials allegedly
siphoned off massive quantities of oil costing the
state Rp8.8 trillion ($850 million) in losses a
year.
Illegal logging, allegedly involving
some elements of the police and military, caused
estimated losses of Rp15 trillion a month - Rp180
trillion a year alone in the province of Sumatra.
An internal audit at the Agriculture
Ministry has found suspected corruption in the
provision of vaccines to fight the bird flu
outbreak, which has killed at least 14 people in
the country. Losses from graft relating to
vaccines were put at almost Rp57 billion after
four companies assigned to produce bird flu
vaccines allegedly, with the complicity of senior
government officials, produced doses of inferior
quality to inflate profits.
Since assuming
power Yudhyono has approved investigations into
alleged corruption cases involving almost 40
regents. On Monday he suspended the Banten
governor indefinitely to facilitate his
prosecution in a corruption case.
Also on
Monday, the former CEO and two other ex-directors
of the giant state-controlled, Bank Mandiri -
Indonesia's biggest bank - went on trial on
corruption charges in a case that forms a central
plank of Yudhoyono's campaign against graft. They
have been detained since May amid ongoing
investigations into dodgy loans from the bank to
several local companies.
Despite this, KPK
Chairman Taufiqurrahman Ruki said: "The commission
is very disappointed with the government's efforts
to prevent corruption. Its efforts and its
determination have yet to show progress."
One problem is the apparent lack of
coordination among the various law enforcement and
legal institutions tasked with combating
corruption. Anwar Nasution, chairman of the
Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), said the apparent slow
progress in the fight against corruption and the
fact many corruption suspects managed to flee the
country were mainly due to weak coordination among
law officers and a shortage of professional
investigators.
Institutions, including the
National Police, the Attorney General's Office
(AGO), the KPK and the BPK should cease what he
described as "civil war among themselves" if the
efforts to curb corruption were to bear fruit, he
said.
Nasution made his comments last week
at the opening of a week-long government workshop
to devise strategies to curb corruption. Attorney
General Abdurrahman Saleh helped prove his point
by failing to show up at the workshop.
Watchdog groups such as German-based
Transparency International have consistently rated
Indonesia as among the most corrupt nations in the
world.
Yudhyono's closest confidante,
Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi, said the
president acknowledged the anti-corruption drive
was still far from achieving its goal and promised
to speed up efforts.
Yudhoyono remains a
popular president, with 63% of Indonesians
satisfied with his performance in running the
country, a new survey by the Indonesian Research
Institute (LSI) reports. However, the survey was
completed in late September, before the latest
fuel-price hikes and the most recent Bali bombs.
Most of the 1,137 people from 33 provinces
interviewed in the survey said the administration
had done a good job in eradicating corruption
(65.1%), combating crime (76.8%), settling
problems with the Free Aceh Movement or GAM
(75.9%), health programs (70%) and education
(74.7%).
Nonetheless there is clearly a
long way to go for this determined president to
shake off the Suharto legacy and bring Indonesia's
justice system back into line.
Bill
Guerin, a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times
Online since 2000, has worked in Indonesia for 20
years as a journalist. He has been published by
the BBC on East Timor and specializes in
business/economic and political analysis in
Indonesia.
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