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Indonesian President's Reform Credentials at Risk Written by Our Correspondent Monday, 02 November 2009 Yudhoyono waffles instead of providing strong backing for his anti-graft agency The confrontation between Indonesia's notoriously corrupt police and its beleaguered Corruption Eradication Commission has erupted into a major test for the reform credentials of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who may be risking his popularity and even his political agenda by refusing to take action. The public outcry has been strong, with reform-minded NGOs and common people alike speaking out against the arrests. The issue has dominated the news, drowning out a National Summit the president held last week with business leaders to set policy targets for his new term in office. Over the weekend, more than 200,000 people joined a Facebook group (Gerakan 1.000.000 Facebookers Dukung Chandra Hamzah & Bibit Samad Riyanto) created to provide support for two deputy chiefs of the anticorruption agency, known by its Indonesian initials KPK, who were arrested last week by the National Police and charged with abuse of power and extortion. The arrests were made despite widely distributed verbatim tape transcripts of law enforcement officials conspiring to frame the two, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah. The Facebook group seems certain to pass its one million member goal, a remarkable feat in a country where Internet penetration is just a bit above 10 percent. The arrests were the latest round in a complex face off that has been underway for months as the police have insisted that the two deputies are crooked. Their supporters say the police are trying to weaken the commission as an act of revenge since a number of high ranking police officials have been the target of anti-corruption investigations. With the charges now headed for court, Yudhoyono said last week he would allow due process to unfold. That is all well and good but it seems clear that he has done nothing to hold the police in check or to sort out the mess before it reached a crisis point. The issue is made more complex since the KPK, a cornerstone of Yudhoyono's claim to be a reformer, has its own powers of investigation, prosecution and trial - which is one reason the body has been able to throw corrupt officials into jail in one of the most notoriously bent countries in the world. Yudhoyono is seemingly caught between his ambition to clean up, industrialize and modernize the country, which has joined the G20 group of industrialized nations and seeks to join China and India as a major force in Asia, and a desire by many powerful allies to see the KPK go away. There is no question the KPK can be irritating, even to a president. In November 2008, the KPK arrested Aulia Pohan, whose daughter is married to the president's son. Yudhoyono's family, particularly his wife, were said to be infuriated. Aulia, a former central bank deputy governor, was ultimately jailed for four and a half years on bribery charges. Relying on sweeping powers, including the right to wiretap and secretly record conversations, issue travel bans, order suspensions from office, block bank accounts, take over investigations from police and the attorney general the agency has gone after members of parliament, ambassadors, the former chief of police and other members of the central bank and achieved a 100 percent conviction rate in its court, which was hamstrung in September by a new law diluting its powers. Despite considerable evidence that the two antigraft officials are being held because they were investigating police corruption, Yudhoyono told a press conference Friday that he would let the law take its course. But the inescapable conclusion is that if the law takes its course, the two could be convicted in a kangaroo court proceeding and the police suspected of taking bribes will be let off the hook. Yudhoyono's pledge to let the system work looks disingenuous at best and perilous to his own political survival. Yudhoyono, an analyst said, is failing to see that his decisive electoral victory in July, with 60.1 percent of the vote, was a mandate to transform the country. With his second and last five-year term just underway and with no major political opposition to his rule, he could be a powerful force for reform - if that is what he wants. Instead, the police-KPK circus looks like business as usual in a country renowned for opaque deal making and questionable courts. Although the power of the KPK to actually transform the country may be largely symbolic, that symbolism has been a potent force in creating at least the image that something can be done about corruption. Indonesia is tied for 126th of 180 countries in the world on Transparency International's respected Corruption Index, up from 137th in 2005, a modest rise largely attributable to the actions of the KPK, which came into being in 2002 and has been strengthened under Yudhoyono since 2004. In addition to the enormous response to the Facebook page, a major collection of national leaders added their voices to the protest, including former President Abdurrahman Wahid, who went to KPK headquarters on Saturday to ask for the release of the two from detention and to "put my name on the line in this case." Political reform groups signed a joint statement asking Yudhoyono to establish a commission to investigate what they called a plot by the Attorney General's Office and the National Police to destroy the KPK. Yudhoyono himself was said to be furious that transcripts of wiretapped phone conversations suggested that he had supported the plan to frame the two. He called ministers and law enforcement officials to his office Friday to demand an explanation, but his press conference later that day was viewed as a depressing indication that nothing would be done. As president, he said, he could not and would not intervene in legal proceedings or ask the police not to carry out their duties. "I have to follow the law. I have never asked for somebody to be arrested or released - not my aides, a member of the Democratic Party, not even my relatives," he said. National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters in a two-hour press conference Friday that investigations of the two anti-graft officials would remain closed to the public until they reached the courts, but denied allegations that the case had been fabricated by police to muzzle the agency. The case, he said, stems from testimony by the former KPK head, Antasari Azhar, who remains in jail on charges of masterminding the murder of a rival for the hand of an attractive young golf caddy. The rumor mill in Jakarta has been churning with conspiracy theories that even Antasari's murder charge is somehow part of a police "plot" to undo the KPK. Antasari, Bambang said, alleged that fugitive businessman Anggoro Widjojo had told him he had paid Rp 6.7 billion ($703,000) in bribes to the KPK commissioners in August or September to halt the investigation against him. In addition, Anggoro's brother, Anggodo Widjojo, said he had paid the money to a supposed middleman, Ary Muladi, who allegedly took the money from Anggoro and paid it to Chandra and Bibit. Ary, however, has recanted his testimony, saying it had been fabricated. Antasari has also backed away from any claim that KPK officials took money, saying he had been forced by police to change his testimony to support the charges. Although Yudhoyono has come under fire for supposedly allowing the bare-knuckle confrontation between the police and the antigraft commission to fester, he told reporters he had sought on past occasions to smooth relations between the KPK and other agencies and said he had no intention of disbanding the KPK. "If there is an attempt from any party to dismiss the KPK, I will be at the fore in fighting it." Nonetheless, if the agency is hamstrung, as seems likely given its many enemies in the police and the legislature, "The public will remember that the destruction of the KPK occurred during SBY's leadership," Teten Masduki, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia, told reporters. That is hardly the legacy Yudhoyono would want. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]