http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070919.E01&irec=0
Ethnic patronage Vice President Jusuf Kalla was right that convicted corruptor and House legislator Nurdin Halid would not flee the country and avoid serving his two-year prison sentence. Nurdin was sent to jail early Wednesday morning. But Kalla, as chairman of the country's largest political party Golkar, was unwise in appointing Nurdin to sit in the House of Representatives to replace legislator Andi Mattalatta, now the justice minister. The House swore in Nurdin as a new legislator last Wednesday. One day later, the Supreme Court sentenced Nurdin to two years in prison for misusing Rp 167.9 billion (US$18 million) in palm oil distribution funds in 1998, when he chaired the Confederation of Primary Cooperative Associations. Despite this verdict from the Supreme Court, Kalla and his Golkar Party remained unmoved at first, defending Nurdin's appointment to the House. Kalla said it was not necessary to strip Nurdin of his House membership because "he had only been sentenced to two years in jail". Kalla showed total disrespect for the law, which basically bars those involved in corruption or any other criminal activity from representing the people and sitting in the House. This is not the first time Kalla has defended his cronies who have run afoul of the law. Not long ago, Kalla defended his friend then justice minister Hamid Awaluddin, who helped Tommy Soeharto cash in about $10 million of allegedly illegally obtained money from a bank in Europe via a Justice Ministry account. Kalla apparently lost this battle and Hamid was removed from the Cabinet. But Hamid is still spared from having to go through the legal process for his role in the matter. The Hamid and Nurdin sagas reveal a deeper problem of patronage based on ethnicity, religion and family affiliation in this country, where corruption, nepotism, collusion and cronyism are endemic and hard to beat. It is surely no coincidence that Kalla, Hamid, Nurdin and even Andi are all from South Sulawesi. It would probably not be totally wrong to assume some ethnic patronage is at play here. Those who are familiar with the Vice President's office know that Kalla has brought in many people from South Sulawesi to work for him in publicly funded positions. This kind of patronage is surely not the monopoly of Kalla and people from South Sulawesi. Many people in Indonesia favor people from the same ethnic group. Look at Jakarta. The bureaucracy in this metropolitan city is dominated by Bataks from North Sumatra and people from Kuningan in West Java and Bima in West Nusa Tenggara. That's where the acronym "Babi kuning", which stands for Batak, Bima and Kuningan, comes from. "Babi kuning" itself literally means yellow pig. Some may argue that ethnic patronage does not always have a negative impact on the country. True. One good example is Kalla's appointment of Farid Husain, a businessman from South Sulawesi, to pave the way for peace talks in Ambon, Maluku, and Poso, Central Sulawesi, and later in Aceh. The appointment, although it may have been based on ethnic considerations, turned out to be a brilliant one. But for ethnic patronage to bring with it benefits is an exception rather than the norm. Ethnic patronage has become a major challenge for democratization. With all local leaders now directly elected by the people, candidates can easily play on their ethnic ties to win an election. And experience shows that regional elections have largely been won by local sons or "putra daerah". The problem does not stop there. The moment a local son wins a regional election, he usually appoints members of his extended family clan to public office or distributes projects to them and those who have helped them win public office. Overall, ethnic patronage does bring more hazards than benefits to the country, so we all have to address, or at least discuss, this important but often ignored issue. Ethnic patronage is usually blatant, yet we tend to ignore it. We have been told again and again, especially during Soeharto's time, that we have to avoid discussing issues pertaining to ethnicity, religion and race, popularly known by the Indonesian acronym SARA. Now we have been relatively free to discuss religion and race, but not ethnicity. We tend to sweep the issue under the carpet. If we continue to do this, it will not be good for our nation building and could undermine the concept of the unitary state of Indonesia, or even endanger the existence of Indonesia itself. printer friendly Post Your Comments Comments could also be sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
