Jakarta, Dec 22, 2010 (ANTARA) - Despite the country`s efforts to fight
corruption and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s commitment to
eradicating graft , there appears to have been no significant downturn
in corruption during the past year.
According to Transparency International`s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2010, issued last October, Indonesia`s score remained 2.8 on a scale of 10, the same as last year.
Among a total of 178 countries rated, Indonesia was in 110th place while in 2009 it ranked 111th among 180 countries.
In the 2010 CPI, Indonesia shared 110th place with Bolivia, Gabon and Kosovo. It fared slightly better than neighboring Vietnam (2.7 and 116), Timor Leste (2.5 and 127) and the Philippines (2.4 and 134).
Supporting the CPI findings, an Indonesian Survey Institute (SLI) poll conducted from Oct. 10 to Oct. 22, 2010 showed that less than 4 in 10 people polled in the survey believed the authorities were able to tackle endemic graft - a more than 50 percent decline in just one year.
SLI in a press release last November said just 34 percent of 1,824 respondents across Indonesia trust the government, down from 83.7 percent shortly after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was reelected to office last year.
"This is a bad signal for our country because public trust is very low," LSI chairman Burhanuddin Muhtadi said, adding that it also showed that the government`s performance in tackling corruption was declining.
He said people`s perceptions that corruption eradication efforts were diminishing was fueled by the failure of the National Police and Attorney General`s Office to act to address the issue.
People only trusted and relied on the work of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and 43.3 percent of the respondents wanted corrupters to be given life sentences.
KPK was formed in 2002 as corruption was so rampant and widespread in Indonesia. Before the KPK was established, only Police and Prosecutors had the authority to deal with corruption cases.
After being vacant since the arrest of KPK`s first chairman Antasari Azhar last May 2009, the post of KPK chief was finally fillwed again after Busyro Muqoddas, former chairman of the Judicial Commission, was sworn in as the anti-graft body`s chief for the 2011-2012 before Preident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace on Monday (Dec 20).
Busyro was elected to replace Antasari Azhar as KPK leader through a vote in the House of Representatives Commission-III last month, defeating the only other candidate, Bambang Widjojanto.
Antasari Azhar, accused of masterminding the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen, was sentenced to 18 years in jail by a South Jakarta district court jury last February 2010.
But Antasari had denied all the charges and said Nasruddin was a personal friend, who had given him vital confidential information on corruption in the RNI group.
Antasari had stated the court jury had reached its verdict in an "abnormal" way because it had completely ignored the facts that were presented or uncovered during the previous trial sessions and not forwarded its argumentation as was normally done in court verdicts.
Early March, Antasari Azhar filed papers for a review of his 18-year jail sentence in the murder case, but in June, the Jakarta High Court rejected his appeal.
Under the leadership of Antasari Azhar, KPK earned wide public support for its success in uncovering major corruption cases and arresting high-profile corrupters, including a number of legislators, and in launching an investigation into the Bank Century case.
After becoming the new KPK leader, Busyro Muqodas said there would be no political agenda with the presidential palace. He also pledged an immediate follow-up to all cases that have already had enough evidence to support them.
Busryo said along with other KPK commissioners he would immediately study the cases one by one including the Century Bank case and the tax fraud case of Gayus Tambunan.
Bank Century case has been considered one of the major corruption scandals and full of political nuances. Last April, KPK summoned Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani on the case.
Boediono, former Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor, and Sri Mulyani, former chairperson of the defunct Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), are considered key figures in the government`s decision to bail out the failed bank.
Bank Century collapsed after its assets worth Rp11.6 trillion were transferred and stashed overseas by its major shareholder Robert Tantular, through his security company Antaboga Delta Sekuritas.
Ailing Bank Century was later rescued by the government through the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) with a bailout fund amounting to Rp6.7 trillion. The bailout sparked public criticism and questions as it was disbursed far in excess of the Rp1.3 trillion the government had previously mentioned to the DPR. The initial bailout discussed with the DPR amounted to only Rp360 billion to Rp1.3 trillion.
The House of Representatives had conducted an investigation and concluded that the Bank Century case was a crime and the government should follow up the legal process, which is now still going on.
The Bank Century Case sparked a heated rivalry between the Police and KPK, which had caused the then Police`s chief detective commissioner general Susno Duaji to lose his post and later turned himself into a `whistle blower` particularly against his own institution, the National Police.
Susno, who was later arrested (until now) in alleged bribery case, said that there were many case brokers in the Police, in particular regarding tax evasion fraud involving big companies and low-level dodgy tax official Gayus Tambunan, who was found of having tens of billions of rupiahs in his and his wife`s accounts.
Like the Bank Century case, the Gayus tax evasion scandal is also still in the process. Gayus Tambunan was arrested in Singapore in March 2010. In June 2010, the police have named prosecutors Cirus Sinaga and and Poltak Manullang as suspects in the tax fraud.
South Jakarta district court sentenced Police`s special economic crime investigator Commissioner Arafat Ennanie to five years in jail in September, while Police Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini was sentenced to two years in October, both for receiving bribes from Gayus Tambunan.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Febri Diansyah last November urged KPK to take over the investigation of the Gayus Tambunan case from the police.
But few days later, Julian Aldrin Pasha, a presidential spokesman said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was convinced that the police would do their utmost to settle the tax mafia case.
"Of course, the President fully believes that the system works as it is and police will settle the case in accordance with the law," Julian Aldrin Pasha said in November.
Apart from the unfinished Bank Century and Gayus Tambunana graft cases, KPK and the Police have also dealt with corruption cases involving several governors, mayors, district heads, legislators, and former ministers over the past one year.
Early this year, ICW had recommended that President Yudhoyono muster the courage to dismiss the National Police chief, the Attorney General, and their immediate assistants and replace them with more capable people.
"The government should also dare to carry out reforms without compromising its corruption eradication strategy," Febri Diansyah said, adding that extraordinary approaches in corruption eradication efforts in Indonesia were a must.
In addition, the government should fully support the existence of KPK, he said last January.
"The support for KPK can be realized by revoking the Draft Government Regulation (RPP) on wiretapping, or preventing the recurrence of practices to criminalize KPK leaders," the ICW activist said.
Following the arrest of Antasari Azhar in the murder case, KPK deputy chiefs Bibit S Rianto and Chandra Hamzah were also charged by the police in the alleged bribery case. Those actions have been seen by some anti-corruption activists as efforts to `weaken` KPK.
Responding allegations voiced by various parties that elements within the power elite were bent on weakening the KPK, Presidential special adviser for legal affairs, Denny Indrayana said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wanted KPK to remain a strong institution.
"The president wants KPK to remain strong," Denny said in a discussion at the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) last June.
Being fed up with unending corruption practices in the country, some people have voiced the need to impose capital punishment against major corrupters.
Constitutional Court Chairman Mafud MD last April 2010 said that death sentence needed to be handed down on corrupters because efforts launched so far to disclose and jail corrupters turned out to be unable to reduce corruption practices.
Sharing Mafud`s opinion, Ismet Hasan Putro, chairman of the Professional Civil Society (MPM), said also in April that the president should soon declare a state of emergency to fight corruption in the country and support the imposition of severe sanctions on those guilty of corruption.
Ismet said judicial mafia practices had been going on for a long time, had become rife and were being engaged systematically at the country`s law-enforcing institutions.
He said the penalties so far meted out to corrupters were too light and had little deterrent effect. Citing an example, he said a corrupter caught red-handed stealing billions of rupiah was only sentenced to five years in jail.
In China, he said, corrupters were invariably sentenced to death. "As a result, corruption now rarely happens in China," he added.
The discovery of a money laundering case involving tax officer Gayus Tambunan should serve as wake-up call for the government to reform the country`s law system, he said.
Din Syamsudin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia`s second largest Islamic organization, has also thrown his weight behind the idea to make corruption punishable by death to deter would-be corrupters.
"It seems I agree with the idea to impose the death penalty on corrupters now that prison sentence proves ineffective to give them shock therapy," he said at a function to mark the 100th anniversary of the organization last April.
As the nation`s three important legal enforcement institutions have newly appointed chairmen, respectively National Police Chief General Timur Pradopo (installed in October 2010), Attorney General Chief Basrief Arief (Nov 26) and KPK Chairman Busyro Muqoddas (Dec 20), will it mean that Indonesia has "new brooms" effective enough to clean the nation from corrupters?
(T. F001/A/HAJM/16:00/f001)
(T.F001/A/F001/F001) 22-12-2010 16:22:27
According to Transparency International`s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2010, issued last October, Indonesia`s score remained 2.8 on a scale of 10, the same as last year.
Among a total of 178 countries rated, Indonesia was in 110th place while in 2009 it ranked 111th among 180 countries.
In the 2010 CPI, Indonesia shared 110th place with Bolivia, Gabon and Kosovo. It fared slightly better than neighboring Vietnam (2.7 and 116), Timor Leste (2.5 and 127) and the Philippines (2.4 and 134).
Supporting the CPI findings, an Indonesian Survey Institute (SLI) poll conducted from Oct. 10 to Oct. 22, 2010 showed that less than 4 in 10 people polled in the survey believed the authorities were able to tackle endemic graft - a more than 50 percent decline in just one year.
SLI in a press release last November said just 34 percent of 1,824 respondents across Indonesia trust the government, down from 83.7 percent shortly after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was reelected to office last year.
"This is a bad signal for our country because public trust is very low," LSI chairman Burhanuddin Muhtadi said, adding that it also showed that the government`s performance in tackling corruption was declining.
He said people`s perceptions that corruption eradication efforts were diminishing was fueled by the failure of the National Police and Attorney General`s Office to act to address the issue.
People only trusted and relied on the work of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), and 43.3 percent of the respondents wanted corrupters to be given life sentences.
KPK was formed in 2002 as corruption was so rampant and widespread in Indonesia. Before the KPK was established, only Police and Prosecutors had the authority to deal with corruption cases.
After being vacant since the arrest of KPK`s first chairman Antasari Azhar last May 2009, the post of KPK chief was finally fillwed again after Busyro Muqoddas, former chairman of the Judicial Commission, was sworn in as the anti-graft body`s chief for the 2011-2012 before Preident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace on Monday (Dec 20).
Busyro was elected to replace Antasari Azhar as KPK leader through a vote in the House of Representatives Commission-III last month, defeating the only other candidate, Bambang Widjojanto.
Antasari Azhar, accused of masterminding the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen, was sentenced to 18 years in jail by a South Jakarta district court jury last February 2010.
But Antasari had denied all the charges and said Nasruddin was a personal friend, who had given him vital confidential information on corruption in the RNI group.
Antasari had stated the court jury had reached its verdict in an "abnormal" way because it had completely ignored the facts that were presented or uncovered during the previous trial sessions and not forwarded its argumentation as was normally done in court verdicts.
Early March, Antasari Azhar filed papers for a review of his 18-year jail sentence in the murder case, but in June, the Jakarta High Court rejected his appeal.
Under the leadership of Antasari Azhar, KPK earned wide public support for its success in uncovering major corruption cases and arresting high-profile corrupters, including a number of legislators, and in launching an investigation into the Bank Century case.
After becoming the new KPK leader, Busyro Muqodas said there would be no political agenda with the presidential palace. He also pledged an immediate follow-up to all cases that have already had enough evidence to support them.
Busryo said along with other KPK commissioners he would immediately study the cases one by one including the Century Bank case and the tax fraud case of Gayus Tambunan.
Bank Century case has been considered one of the major corruption scandals and full of political nuances. Last April, KPK summoned Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani on the case.
Boediono, former Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor, and Sri Mulyani, former chairperson of the defunct Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), are considered key figures in the government`s decision to bail out the failed bank.
Bank Century collapsed after its assets worth Rp11.6 trillion were transferred and stashed overseas by its major shareholder Robert Tantular, through his security company Antaboga Delta Sekuritas.
Ailing Bank Century was later rescued by the government through the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) with a bailout fund amounting to Rp6.7 trillion. The bailout sparked public criticism and questions as it was disbursed far in excess of the Rp1.3 trillion the government had previously mentioned to the DPR. The initial bailout discussed with the DPR amounted to only Rp360 billion to Rp1.3 trillion.
The House of Representatives had conducted an investigation and concluded that the Bank Century case was a crime and the government should follow up the legal process, which is now still going on.
The Bank Century Case sparked a heated rivalry between the Police and KPK, which had caused the then Police`s chief detective commissioner general Susno Duaji to lose his post and later turned himself into a `whistle blower` particularly against his own institution, the National Police.
Susno, who was later arrested (until now) in alleged bribery case, said that there were many case brokers in the Police, in particular regarding tax evasion fraud involving big companies and low-level dodgy tax official Gayus Tambunan, who was found of having tens of billions of rupiahs in his and his wife`s accounts.
Like the Bank Century case, the Gayus tax evasion scandal is also still in the process. Gayus Tambunan was arrested in Singapore in March 2010. In June 2010, the police have named prosecutors Cirus Sinaga and and Poltak Manullang as suspects in the tax fraud.
South Jakarta district court sentenced Police`s special economic crime investigator Commissioner Arafat Ennanie to five years in jail in September, while Police Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini was sentenced to two years in October, both for receiving bribes from Gayus Tambunan.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Febri Diansyah last November urged KPK to take over the investigation of the Gayus Tambunan case from the police.
But few days later, Julian Aldrin Pasha, a presidential spokesman said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was convinced that the police would do their utmost to settle the tax mafia case.
"Of course, the President fully believes that the system works as it is and police will settle the case in accordance with the law," Julian Aldrin Pasha said in November.
Apart from the unfinished Bank Century and Gayus Tambunana graft cases, KPK and the Police have also dealt with corruption cases involving several governors, mayors, district heads, legislators, and former ministers over the past one year.
Early this year, ICW had recommended that President Yudhoyono muster the courage to dismiss the National Police chief, the Attorney General, and their immediate assistants and replace them with more capable people.
"The government should also dare to carry out reforms without compromising its corruption eradication strategy," Febri Diansyah said, adding that extraordinary approaches in corruption eradication efforts in Indonesia were a must.
In addition, the government should fully support the existence of KPK, he said last January.
"The support for KPK can be realized by revoking the Draft Government Regulation (RPP) on wiretapping, or preventing the recurrence of practices to criminalize KPK leaders," the ICW activist said.
Following the arrest of Antasari Azhar in the murder case, KPK deputy chiefs Bibit S Rianto and Chandra Hamzah were also charged by the police in the alleged bribery case. Those actions have been seen by some anti-corruption activists as efforts to `weaken` KPK.
Responding allegations voiced by various parties that elements within the power elite were bent on weakening the KPK, Presidential special adviser for legal affairs, Denny Indrayana said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wanted KPK to remain a strong institution.
"The president wants KPK to remain strong," Denny said in a discussion at the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) last June.
Being fed up with unending corruption practices in the country, some people have voiced the need to impose capital punishment against major corrupters.
Constitutional Court Chairman Mafud MD last April 2010 said that death sentence needed to be handed down on corrupters because efforts launched so far to disclose and jail corrupters turned out to be unable to reduce corruption practices.
Sharing Mafud`s opinion, Ismet Hasan Putro, chairman of the Professional Civil Society (MPM), said also in April that the president should soon declare a state of emergency to fight corruption in the country and support the imposition of severe sanctions on those guilty of corruption.
Ismet said judicial mafia practices had been going on for a long time, had become rife and were being engaged systematically at the country`s law-enforcing institutions.
He said the penalties so far meted out to corrupters were too light and had little deterrent effect. Citing an example, he said a corrupter caught red-handed stealing billions of rupiah was only sentenced to five years in jail.
In China, he said, corrupters were invariably sentenced to death. "As a result, corruption now rarely happens in China," he added.
The discovery of a money laundering case involving tax officer Gayus Tambunan should serve as wake-up call for the government to reform the country`s law system, he said.
Din Syamsudin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia`s second largest Islamic organization, has also thrown his weight behind the idea to make corruption punishable by death to deter would-be corrupters.
"It seems I agree with the idea to impose the death penalty on corrupters now that prison sentence proves ineffective to give them shock therapy," he said at a function to mark the 100th anniversary of the organization last April.
As the nation`s three important legal enforcement institutions have newly appointed chairmen, respectively National Police Chief General Timur Pradopo (installed in October 2010), Attorney General Chief Basrief Arief (Nov 26) and KPK Chairman Busyro Muqoddas (Dec 20), will it mean that Indonesia has "new brooms" effective enough to clean the nation from corrupters?
(T. F001/A/HAJM/16:00/f001)
(T.F001/A/F001/F001) 22-12-2010 16:22:27
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