http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/03/corruption-sentence-cut-reflects-failed-government.html
Corruption sentence cut reflects failed government Donny Syofyan, Padang | Fri, 09/03/2010 9:46 AM | Opinion The President's remission and pardon to some corruption convicts have been really shocking. Independence Day celebration, which is supposed to be a victorious public day, has turned into a public condolence day, with Aulia Pohan and several people convicted of graft leaving houses of detention. The government's move increases people's suspicion over the government's commitment to combat corruption. Aulia Pohan, a former deputy governor of Bank Indonesia and an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was conditionally released from detention serving less than two years of his three-year prison term. This is not to mention sentence reductions granted to Artalyta Suryani, once notoriously caught in a luxurious cell, or the pardon granted to Syaukani Hasan Rais, former regent of Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, who was suspended from his post over four cases involving Rp 93.2 billion (US$10.1 million). Public outrage over the sentence reductions given to those corrupt officials indicates a failed government to battle corruption, which is the country's number one enemy. There are some notes on this. First, the government is certainly suffering from a "priority syndrome" to fight against corruption. A 2006 government regulation, on which the government based the president's remission and pardon, runs against the spirit of corruption eradication. Bribery is a corrupt practice, which has been declared as an extraordinary crime, and therefore lead to the establishment of a superbody institution such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) through Law No. 30/2002. The law authorizes the KPK to tap the phone lines of suspected corrupt officials and submit the phone data records as evidence tools. Inappropriately, the government seems to have no clear sense of direction and priority when it comes to eradicating corruption, failing to show zero tolerance for corrupt officials. The government's poor priority is getting worse as it applies or focuses on convicts' perspectives rather than people's interest. The humanitarian ground to release Syaukani, for instance, is not on par with the people's sense of justice. The government has a total blackout for poor people's pain, forgetting how black and evil the convicts' heart and soul must be to steal even from the poor. Second, the government is suffering from its worst crisis of confidence to combat corruption. The government becomes frustrated with endless bribery cases in this country, not simply due to soaring cases day by day, but also because the increasing law enforcement officials involved, such as police generals. Such complexity prevents the government from holding serious and intense coordination involving both regular law enforcement agencies, such as police and ad-hoc law enforcement agencies, such as the KPK and the Judicial Mafia Taskforce. That accounts for the government's politically motivated move, which is basically a setback in fighting corruption. The move probably aims to either gather support from local elites, who are mainly prominent figures at the local level, as Transparency International Indonesia's Teten Masduki said, or to show that the government prefers compromise to determination in dealing with corruption eradication. To the worst degree, the corruption sentence reduction constitutes a government's project or breakthrough, especially the justice and human rights minister, prior to Cabinet reshuffles in times to come to win President Yudhoyono's heart. Despite the breakthrough being deemed as against the mainstream, using Hebert Adam's maxim, such a move is quite catchy to manipulate truth in line with the ruling government's interest. The government's crisis of confidence, inspired by the maxim, will only be overcome by exposing unpopular and brainwashing breakthroughs. Third, the government is attempting to de-energize the KPK. For a couple of years, the KPK has appeared on stage to handle seemingly untouchable corruption cases in this country. The public lend high credence to the institution owing to the fact that during its existence the corruption eradication index shows a decreasing rate. There has been systematic ways of criminalizing the most-trusted law enforcement at the moment. In the previous months, President Yudhoyono demurred at interfering in the bribery accusations leveled against the KPK deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah. But now the scenario is getting tough, the President and Justice and Human Rights Ministry block the KPK from moving any longer to tackle and arrest more corrupt officials by granting more and more pardons, remissions, and conditional freedom to multiple corrupt officials in the prison. The reliable commission no longer frightens corrupt convicts since it becomes a toothless tiger as they are about to receive sentence cuts one day as long as they behave well in the penitentiary. This creates a big loophole just waiting to be exploited by corrupt officials with deep pockets. The public still believe that the KPK is the only institution capable of setting up radical improvements within the law enforcement institutions, much better than other law enforcement agencies such as the National Police or the Attorney General's Office. Any efforts to tame the KPK through grafting pardons, remissions and conditional freedom to corrupt convicts means the creation of a whole new generation of law enforcers is simply a daydream. The writer is a lecturer at Andalas University, Padang, and a graduate of the University of Canberra, Australia. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
