Rizal Malik's Blog
My stories, my thoughts, my world.

Unfit and improper test.

Ota text this message last night (my translation): “To day 5 December [2007] is the funeral of Corruption Eradication in Indonesia. … AA is chairman of KPK [Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission]. The parliament members are so cruel and will bring this nation into EXTINCTION”. Smss are flying from anti-corruption activists throughout the country until late midnight. It shows frustration and pessimism on the choices of KPK leadership by the parliament.

The parliament, through its law and domestic affairs committee (Komisi III), has been doing fit and proper test for the commissioners of KPK. From 10 candidates, there are three candidates have a doubtful integrity. Two are coming from the prosecutor office and one is retired police officer. The latter has admitted that he received bribes when he was an active police officer, and he got the job. One of the prosecutors has been accused for plagiarism when he was a graduate student, and the other prosecutor is known for a lavish life style beyond his means as the civil servant. Worse still, this person has tried to bribe a journalist during the selection process, presumably to get favourable coverage in the media. The journalist has given a testimony to the selection committee, but they ignored the testimony. The worst come at around 8 o’clock last night when the committee announced their decisions; the doubtful prosecutor is not only selected as the commissioner, but also as the chairman of KPK!

In the past three days, I have been busy lobbying the members of parliament for choosing the people of integrity for KPK. We suspected that the Parliament is not interested to have a strong KPK. KPK is now investigating the bribery from the central bank to the members of parliament for a favourable law on the Bank. In addition, there are also several other corruption cases involving the members of parliament and political party cadres in the regional and local governments. Rumours have been circulated since last week that the major parties has made a secret agreement to make KPK weak by choosing problematic characters. The “package” that has been leaked from Ritz-Carlton meeting, after a new posh hotel in Jakarta, is exactly what the parliament has vote for last night.

This is just another milestone of the “corruption fight back” in Indonesia. We have a good law on corruption eradication, has a strong super body like KPK and a clean and effective anti-corruption court. Corruption is considered as extra-ordinary crime that needs an extra-ordinary institutions. Those are the fruit of “Reformasi” in 1998. However, since last year there are a lot of judicial reviews on the law to the Constitutional Court. Unfortunately, the Constitutional Court has ruled that Anti-corruption Court is unconstitutional on procedural ground. It has to be formulated in separate law, not in the same law with KPK. The Constitutional Court is given the President and the Parliament three years to formulate a new bill, and during the period the Anti-corruption Court can operate as usual. But damage has been done to the legitimacy of Anti-corruption Court. With the weak KPK, and death penalty to the Anti-corruption Court, anti-corruption prosecution will return to corrupt police and prosecutor institutions.

This afternoon Transparency International will launch its Global Corruption Barometer 2007 report. The police, judiciary, parliament and political party are top on the list of the most corrupt institution in Indonesia. As Ota has been worried in his text message, returning the anti-corruption efforts to the ordinary police and judicial system will means the death penalty for corruption eradication efforts in Indonesia.

2007-12-06 07:21:41 GMT

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