Maafkan Pak/Bu Jaksa, saya berburuk sangka kepada
Anda.  Anda didekati oleh terdakwa melalui pengacara
yang menjanjikan imbalan.  Kalau harganya cocok, Anda
atur tuntutan sedemikian rupa sehingga pengacara dapat
mematahkan argumen Anda.  Tujuannya, agar hakim
membebaskan terdakwa dari segala tuntutan. Caranya? 
Mudah ditebak.  Anda bikin tuntutan macam-macam yang
kelihatannya memenuhi tuntutan rasa keadilan
masyarakat, tetapi sebetulnya tidak ada dasar hukumnya
atau tidak didukung bukti kuat.  Betul begitu, kan
Pak/Bu Jaksa? 

Salam,
RM

-------------------------

  Print November 11, 2004 

Tajuk Rencana
The Jakarta Post
 
 
Justice for sale 

The saga over the massive corruption case at Bank BNI
has taken a new turn this week with new allegations of
bribery and extortion between the suspects and their
investigators. One would have thought that since the
return of the prime suspect Adrian Waworuntu, after he
had fled abroad, it should have sped up the
investigation and brought the case to a close once and
for all. Instead, the plot thickens.

Media Indonesia newspaper has, for the past few days,
led its front page with stories about
behind-the-scenes negotiations involving various
players in the Rp 1.3 trillion loan scandal at the
state bank. Perhaps the most damaging allegation, as
far as the law enforcement agencies are concerned,
came from Harris Is Artono, one of the suspects, who
said that he had been asked to pay US$100,000 by a
senior prosecutor to have the charges against him
either dropped or mitigated. Harris, who is due to be
sentenced soon for his part in the scandal, has
nothing to lose by going public with such allegations.


Media Indonesia carried another story which said that
two suspects also gave a check for Rp 5 billion
($550,000) to a top police investigator, again in the
hopes of having their charges dropped. 

But that check bounced, much to the chagrin of the
red-faced cop. 

All the bribe and extortion allegations have been
vehemently denied by the people in question at the
prosecutor's office and the National Police. But both
men are now under investigation by their respective
offices. Those who made the accusations will have to
be questioned, this time not as suspects but as
witnesses to help build the case, assuming there is
one. 

Does all this sound overly familiar? Perhaps. But it
is not because it is the stuff our soap operas are
made of. It all sounds so familiar because bribes and
extortion have become very much part of the system in
this country. Corruption has intruded into the
political, economic, social and cultural system and
also, as the BNI case shows, the justice system. It is
probably so commonplace that no TV producer has ever
bothered to take it up as a central theme of sinetron.


Yet, it is a drama nevertheless, and a very tragic one
because, at least in real life, the villains seem to
win all the time. The victims in such a plot, usually
ordinary taxpaying folks who have to bear the brunt of
the huge corruption costs, are not part of the
scenario anyway. 

But nothing could be as tragic as when the very people
whom we have entrusted to lead the campaign against
corruption are themselves corrupt. Sadly, it has long
been an open secret that in this country, justice is
for sale. The scandal surrounding the investigation of
the BNI corruption case, whether true or not, is a sad
reminder of the state of things with respect to our
law. 

Certainly, there have been many times when corruption
cases crashed and burned before the final court
judgment was pronounced. They can crash at a variety
of points along the legal process; during the police
investigation, at the prosecutors' office or during
the trials. The huge inconsistencies in the sentences
passed, or in the treatments given to the suspects in
the BNI loan scandal are indications that many forces
other than the quest for justice are at play. 

Would it not be nice if, from time to time, such a
saga came to a happy end for the public -- where
justice was truly served. By the looks of it however,
the drama surrounding the BNI corruption case is going
to go on for some time. All we can do is sit back and
watch, or switch to another more entertaining channel
and come back from time to time. Like most sinetron
dramas, the plot in corruption dramas moves slowly, if
at all. 
 



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