Indonesia Antigraft Battle Faces Brutal Attacks

(News Today) - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second term last year with an overwhelming mandate to fight corruption. Events this month show that battle is far from won.

Last week, antigraft campaigner Tama Langkun was beaten with iron rods by unknown thugs, sending him to the hospital for five days. Mr. Langkun is best known for asking the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, to investigate how senior police officers accumulated big bank accounts. Tempo Magazine, which ran a June cover story on the issue, saw its offices fire-bombed the week before Mr. Langkun's beating.

The police have promised to investigate both incidents, and we hope they do so expeditiously. Indonesians have seen crimes like this go unpunished before. The most prominent example is that of Munir Said Thalib, the former head of the Commission for “Disappeared“ Persons and Victims of Violence, who was poisoned on a 2004 flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. Although a pilot was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the poisoning, the person or persons who ordered it have never been found.

To his credit, President Yudhoyono is shedding his normally quiescent approach to vigilante violence, a problem usually confined to religious minorities. “I want to make sure that whoever carried out this attack for whatever motive is punished,“ he said last week. He visited Mr. Langkun in the hospital Saturday, along with the local press corps -- the strongest symbolic message he's sent to date. He has also spoken out against the Tempo bombing.

Mr. Yudhoyono could do more, starting with a reinvigoration of the KPK. Since 2004, the commission has been a fearless fighter of graft, netting former members of parliament, central bank officials and even Mr. Yudhoyono's daughter's father-in-law. The KPK is Indonesia's main hope to conquer corruption that has deterred foreign investment, undermined the rule of law and stunted growth.

In the last year, however, the KPK has suffered major setbacks. Its chairman was prosecuted and jailed for murder. (He says he was framed and is appealing.) Two of its four deputy chairmen, Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, were accused of “abuse of power,“ but the case was dropped after a government investigation reported that police and prosecutors had framed them.

Their case was reopened last month when a man being investigated by the KPK charged that the court dropped the original case illegally. Messrs. Chandra and Bibit, who run the KPK's prosecution and investigation teams, are now “inactive“ members of the commission.

Without these key posts filled, the KPK is effectively rudderless. The government committee appointed to find a new chairman has struggled to find suitable candidates. Meanwhile, organizations like Tempo and Mr. Langkun's Indonesia Corruption Watch soldier on at their peril.

President Yudhoyono can help by making clear his unwavering support for the KPK, NGOs and media that fight graft. He could also order better witness protection. The fight against corruption will go a long way to determining whether, and how rapidly, Indonesia will join the ranks of modern, developed nations.

Source : kompas

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