Jakarta's graft watchdog bitten
The Age
Thursday September 17, 2009
INDONESIA'S powerful corruption watchdog, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), is in disarray after two of its most senior officials were yesterday named by police in a probe that alleges they allowed two executives to flee the country before facing justice for embezzlement.The latest accusations come as the KPK is under siege from influential quarters, including the country's parliament and police, and as its backers appear to be dwindling, with even Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono silent.The accusations follow the arrest earlier this year of the former chairman of the KPK, Antasari Azhar, on charges of ordering the murder of another executive who was allegedly a love rival for a young female golf caddy.The spectacular implosion of the senior ranks of the KPK €” an institution until this year regarded by Indonesians as a heroic force for cleaning up the country's endemic culture of graft €” is a devastating blow to Dr Yudhoyono's campaign to convince foreign investors that headway is being made against corruption.In an even more damaging development, Indonesia's parliament appears set to neuter the KPK with a new bill that strips it of its ability to pursue those engaged in corruption and prosecute them in a special Anti-Corruption Court separate from the notoriously corrupt judiciary.Yesterday's naming and shaming of the two KPK deputies €” Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto €” has become part of a barely concealed war between the KPK on one side and the police and attorney-general's office on the other.Senior members of the police and the attorney-general's office have been arrested and jailed by the KPK.Mr Hamzah and Mr Rianto have been questioned at length. They are accused of "abuse of power" related to decisions to "apply and revoke travel bans" in two cases.A travel ban was puzzlingly not applied to Anggoro Widjaja, the owner of a company under investigation by the KPK who fled the country before he was declared a suspect in the case.The other case involved Djoko Tjandra, a banker who pilfered some $500 million of taxpayer funds allocated to bail out his Bank Bali during the financial crisis of 1997-98. He escaped to Papua New Guinea the day before the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and upheld a lengthy prison sentence.The allegations against the two KPK men stemmed from Mr Azhar, their former boss.Emerson Yuntho from Indonesian Corruption Watch said it was difficult to come to a judgment at this stage about the bona fides of the claims and counter-claims of corruption among the KPK, police and attorney-general's office."What we worry about is the KPK as an institution," he said. "We must separate these two issues, the persons and the institution."Mr Yuntho said the KPK €” with its independence, powers to compel testimony and use high-tech surveillance devices €” was a model for anti-corruption that had been emulated in other countries.But Mr Yuntho said that Dr Yudhoyono was doing nothing to stop MPs from his party supporting measures to greatly reduce the KPK's powers.
© 2009 The Age
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