FIGHTING CORRUPTION IN INDONESIA
Prof. Adi Andojo
Soetjipto 1. Presently Indonesia is categorized as the number 5 of the 96 most corrupt states in the world. According to the International Transparency Community, that conclusion can give picture of how chronic is the corruption practices in Indonesia. That condition may become a serious constraint in the effort to cope with the multi dimensional crisis being faced by Indonesia. The multi dimensional crisis caused by the recent economic crisis has spread all over so that it has disturbed the values of the nation's social politic, including the disturbance of the community in obeying the Law. The evolving of corruption in every human life has threatened recovering process of the national economy. Therefore the Indonesian people are persistent to combat corruption. Combating corruption constitutes national commitment as determined in the Peop1e's Consultative Assembly's Decree of No.XAIPR/1998 and No.XUMPR/1998, then performed by under laws and regulations, that is Law No.28 of 1999 on state Executors which is clean from Collusion Corruption and Nepotism, and Law No.31 of I999 on Eradication of the Criminal Act of Corruption. By those Laws the government is forced not only to build a government, which is clean from collusion, corruption and nepotism practices, but also to finish collusion, corruption and nepotism problems, which emerged during the previous government under the former president Soeharto, which was only beneficial to a certain party. Centralization of power, authority and responsibility in one hand without giving any significant role to the community to participate in effective social control to the state Executors, obviously give a negative impact in life of politic, economy, monetary and law. All of th1s had no root in the community but they just formed an instrument to sustain the corrupt power. Therefore, Law No.28 of 1998 and Law No.3I of I999, which is aimed to increase public conf1dence, should provide big opportunity to the public to participate in controlling the state Executors, especially to control state Executors violating the Law. Even to 1ncrease the credibility in the Held of law enforcement, especially in inqulr1ng, investigating and prosecuting big corruption cases, the element of the public must be involved directly as members of the Anti Corruption Commission as mandated by Law No.31 of 1999 which must be established at the latest in August of 2001. The establishment of th1s Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team is meant as a model or embrio before the Anti Corruption Commission is established, so it is hoped that the Commission will be able to synchronize works between law enforcer in one hand and other institutions and the public in the other hand, without contradicting the stipulation in the Criminal Procedure Law. 2. The establishment of the Anti Corruption Joint Investigat1ng Team is based on the Government Decree No.19 of 2000 as mandated by article 27 of Law No.31 of 1999 which stipulates: In the event that a corruption criminal act is detected, which is very hard to prove, under the coordination of Attorney General a joint team shall be set up. Accord1ng to that article the Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team is responsible to the Attorney General and in performing its duties and powers the Joint Investigation Team is under the Attorney General's coordination. The Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team is considered independent to perform its duties and powers, free from any interference, involving executive and legislative powers. According to article 43 of Law No.31 of 1999 the Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team will exist only for 2 years beginning on 16 August 1999 to 16 August 2001. Article 43 paragraph (1) of Law No.31 of 1999 stipulates: With a maximum period of 2 years since this Law takes effect, a Commission for Eradication of Corruption is set up. So it means that after the Commission is established, the Joint Investigation Team will be abolished. The membership of the Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team consists of active National Police of officers, active prosecutors, related institution officials and prominent leaders of the society. The duties and tasks of the Joint Investigation Team are to coordinate investigation and prosecution toward corruption crimes which is considered difficult to proof; In performing investigation and prosecution, these duties are carried out by the members and task force of the Joint Investigation Team who have the power to investigate and to prosecute due to their function as active police officers and public prosecutors. The strategy of the Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team is to absorp aspiration of the community by way of opening the door to the public to make reports and complains, and to give priority to cases which have chain-effect in connection with the enforcement of the supremacy of Law. Since the Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team is established approximately 5 months ago, the Joint Investigation Team has received reports, either from the community or from the Attorney General's office, in total 186 reports, in which concerning judiciary 60 (32%), government institutions 45, individual 6, foundation 2, banks 4, cooperation 3, others 66. The stage of handling these reports is: examination stage 133,inquirystage 5, investigation stage 4, cannot be followed up as being not supported by sufficient evidence/just a grudge 44 reports. 3. Corruption has declined every sector of life. The Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team with a short working period (approximately 1 year, because the members of this Team was installed on 24 May 2000) it is impossible to eradicate corruption completely. The conclusion of giving priority to handle corruption in the judicial 1nstitution(without ig1oringother institutions), mainly the Supreme Court, is based on the consideration that the Supreme Court wh1ch is supposed as the last fortress of justice, can be expected by the people as a clean and honest institution where people can trust and obtain a real justice. But the Anti Corruption Jo1nt Investigation Team's experience in investigating the Justices of the Supreme Court (1 is retired and 2 are still active) who are charged with receiving bribes from a plaintiff, is different with what we expected before, because we must face a strong resistance from most of their colleagues who feel this act of the Joint Investigation Team "has hurt collective sentiment" of the Judges' Corps. Therefore the decision of the pretrial judge of the South Jakarta District Court on 29 September 2000which ruled that this Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team has no power to investigate these 2 Justices of the Supreme Court, based on the consideration that the case occurred in 1998, thus before Law No.31 of 1999 was enacted. This stance of the pretrial court constitutes the realization of Collective solidarity using a "law cover" as a reason. Whereas the People's Consultative Assembly Decree No.XIAIPR/I998m article 4 stipulates: Initiative to combat corruption, collusion and nepotism should be performed firmly to everyone, either State Officials or former State Officials...etc. Thus the principle and spirit of this Decree followed up by Law No.31 of 1999 is not only combating corruption which occur after Law No.31 of 1999 is enacted but also to combat corruption which occur before Law No.31 of 1999 is not yet enacted. The value principle wh1d is used as basis by the courts for crime occurred in the past with new regulation is to create "restorative justice" and not merely "retributive justice" (that is justice which is used to strengthen the Law itself), but all at once "bring justice to people", because this justice truth must be concreted and not only used as a mere "legalistic procedural". 4. The initiative to combat corruption in the last 5 months reveals that this problem is very complex and more complicated than assumed before. The resistance is great because it impressed as if corruption has rushed into all human life, while the crony of the former president Soeharto who is still have the power to possess fund, also me power in politics and military, they try to prevent reformation pressure. Transparency as a precondition for a good government administration has the impression as a threat to the middle and the lowest part of the bureaucracy, but on the other hand it lets high ranking officials free to commit corruption conclusion and nepotism. The initiative to eradicate corruption should be focused more to reveal and solve great corruption cases, so the sense of justice of the people can be complied. Therefore a more systematic and glided effort must be provided to get support from the community in the effort to combat corruption. 5. To be more effective in performing its mission, the Anti Corruption Joint Investigation Team expects support from the members of the Indonesian House of Representatives. It is expected that this support constitutes not only critic and control to the working performance of the Joint Investigation Team wh1ch is not in line with the community's expectation, but also involve suggestion and opinion to increase effective effort to eradicate corruption. |