http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1927&Itemid=202
Is Indonesia's anti-corruption court in danger?
Written by Our Correspondent
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
An anticorruption court has to be rescued by lawmakers, some of whom it
seeks to put in jail
Since its inception in 2002 as a part of Indonesia's reformasi movement
in the wake of the fall of the strongman Suharto, the country's Anti-Corruption
Court has amassed an amazing record.
It is now faced with the end of its tenure, with its legislative mandate
due to run out in December. If it is allowed to continue, it will say a great
deal about the direction in which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will take
the country after he is expected to be re-elected, either in July or in
September if there is a runoff against one of his two presidential opponents,
Megawati Sukarnoputri or Jusuf Kalla.
The Corruption Eradication Commission, which was set up under the same
legislation to investigate and try cases in the anti-corruption court, has
never lost a single case. Relying on powers that truly can be called draconian,
including warrantless wiretaps and other law enforcement tools, it has played a
major role in the perceptions of Yudhoyono as a reformer, despite the fact that
there is little beyond the agency's activities that would indicate Indonesia is
being cleaned up very much.
Nonetheless, since it was set up, nine members of parliament, a former
national police chief, three ambassadors, a senior prosecutor and three central
bank officials including the former governor Burhanuddin Abdullah and the
bank's deputy governor to jail, along with scores of lesser central and
provincial government officials and businessmen have been packed off to jail.
And, Haryano Umar, the commission's deputy chairman, told Asia Sentinel
in an interview, the agency has its eyes on as many as another 15 of the
members of the country's House of Representatives. Three more were named
Tuesday as suspects in an alleged bribery case over the appointment of a new
Bank Indonesia deputy governor
For that reason alone, the shell-shocked 560 members of the Indonesia
House of Representatives are in no hurry to pass enabling legislation that must
be put in place by December to continue the anti-corruption court in existence.
Already, they have missed one crucial deadline. When President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono met with leaders of the house to push for the passage of six
"crucial" bills to be passed before the current legislature is dissolved on
Sept. 30, the enabling legislation for the anti-corruption court wasn't among
them. Yudhoyono said the bill on the Anti-Corruption Court wasn't included
because the Constitutional Court had ruled that it did not have to be passed
until Dec. 19.
The anti-corruption court, with its stellar record, stands out
dramatically against the rest of the country's court system, which is
considered to be the most corrupt in Southeast Asia, both in criminal and civil
matters. More than half of the corruption cases tried by the public courts in
2008 were simply dismissed, according to Indonesian Corruption Watch, which
said more than 60 percent of defendants were found not guilty. Those convicted
were sentenced to only 15 months in jail, compared to an average of 50 months
in the Anti-Corruption Court.
Already, the House of Representatives is faced with the job of finding a
successor for Antasari Azhur, the head of the corruption eradication agency.
Antasari was arrested in April on charges of having ordered the murder of
Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, the 41-year-old head of a state-owned pharmaceutical
company. Despite the corruption eradication agency's record in hauling in
governmental miscreants, anticorruption activists say Antasari got in the way
of more cases than he promoted. The house, rated by Indonesians as their most
corrupt public institution, is not expected to pick a reformer.
Even with its chairman in jail, the anti-corruption agency itself has
shown no signs of slowing down. Haryano said the lack of a chairman has posed
no problems so far. The agency depends on a five-person commission for its
decisions, not a single chairman, and the other four are continuing to do their
job. Diplomatically, he declined to say whether Antasari had got in the
agency's way.
Yudhoyono told reporters in May that "We really want to complete the law
on the Anti-Corruption Court within the present presidential and house terms. I
would prefer to continue our discussions [of the bill] and to finish it."
But, say reformers, that appears unlikely. The newly constituted house
won't sit for its first session until October and, given its lack of enthusiasm
for an agency that appears to be dedicated to putting lawmakers behind bars,
isn't likely to speed through the legislation enabling the anti-corruption
court to continue to exist.
The president has the option of issuing a special regulation in lieu of
law, known as a perpu, to keep the court alive. He told reporters in May that
he would prefer not to issue a perpu.
"We will only use a regulation in lieu of law if we really have to," the
president said. "The fewer regulations in lieu of laws there are the better,
because we still have some other mechanisms and time to complete the law."
Speaking on the same occasion, the house speaker said a legislative
committee which oversees legal and judiciary affairs, had already set up a
special task force to carry out an intensive review of the draft
Anti-Corruption Court bill.
"We will also try to complete it before September 30," he said. "The
Constitutional Court has decided that the law must be completed by December 19,
2009. If it can't be done by that time, then of course there will be ways to go
about handling that problem. But we will try our best."
That may well leave Yudhoyono with having to issue the perpu, whether he
wants to or not.
The big question is whether, after his presumed re-election, Yudhoyono
will seek to clean up the conventional court system. Without a cleanup,
Indonesia will sadly remain pretty much the country it is. That is illustrated
by a raft of civil cases in which high-flying tycoons solve their legal
problems by taking them before friendly judges.
The latest case to catch the public eye is between the McDonald's
hamburger chain and Bambang N. Rachmadi, the holder of 13 McDonald's
franchises, who is seeking to take the fast-food chain to court on allegations
it transferred franchises to the wealthy Sosrodjojo family without his
knowledge or permission.
"Mr. Rachmadi was fully and properly informed of all matters to be
decided by the shareholders of PT Bina Nusa Rama," McDonald's said in a
statement. Nonetheless, McDonalds now finds itself in court, along with a
variety of other multinationals in different cases that have good reason to
worry that decisions aren't going to be made on their merits.
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