http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/world/asia/06indo.html?_r=1&ref=asia
Indonesia Officials Resign in Graft Scandal By NORIMITSU ONISHI Published: November 5, 2009 JAKARTA, Indonesia - After mounting pressure from the public and the news media, two senior law enforcement officials suspected of trying to undermine the country's respected anti-corruption agency were forced to resign Thursday. The resignations of top officials in the national police and attorney general's office, two of Indonesia's most powerful, though corrupt, institutions, amounted to a positive step in the country's fight against graft, advocates of government accountability said. They were the culmination of a very public, four-months-long battle that pitted the police and attorney general's office against the Corruption Eradication Commission, the nation's chief investigator into corruption, and was also a test of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitment to stamp out corruption. Despite praise for his anticorruption drive during his first term, Mr. Yudhoyono was criticized by watchdog groups for distancing himself from the recent dispute. Mr. Yudhoyono was forced to intervene Thursday after wiretapped conversations were revealed in court this week, exposing an apparent plot by police officials and prosecutors to fabricate a case against two senior anticorruption officials. In a cabinet meeting, Mr. Yudhoyono said he "advised the police chief and the attorney general to suspend those whose names were mentioned in the tape recordings and discharge them from their duties." But he stopped short of demanding stronger punitive action against the two officials. Anticorruption advocates said that, given the president's response, it was unlikely that he would push more far-reaching reforms inside the national police and attorney general's office during his second term. "The K.P.K. received a lot of support from the public but not from the government," Danang Widojoko, a coordinator at Indonesia Corruption Watch, a private organization, said, referring to the anticorruption agency by the initials of its name in Indonesian. "It was the failure of the president to handle this situation in the beginning that led to the current problems." The officials, Abdul Hakim Ritonga, a deputy attorney general, and Gen. Susno Duadji, a high-ranking police official, resigned Thursday after being named in wiretaps whose contents were submitted during a hearing at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday and broadcast live on television. Mr. Susno had become the central figure in the police's fight with the anticorruption agency after being caught in a wiretap asking for a $1 million bribe in a case. Mr. Susno denied he had been serious about the bribe and, referring to the anticorruption agency's investigation of the police, likened it to "a gecko challenging a crocodile." Though comparatively small, the anticorruption agency, armed with tools like warrantless wiretaps, has led the nation's charge against corruption since it was established in 2003. It has investigated, prosecuted and convicted businessmen, politicians, bankers, as well as prosecutors and police officials. Watchdog groups have long warned that politicians, prosecutors and the police have been trying to cripple the agency. And so the arrests last week of two deputies at the anticorruption agency, Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto, on charges of graft and abuse of power set off a series of events leading to Thursday's resignations. The initial arrests sparked outrage among anticorruption advocates, as well as on the Internet and in Indonesia's free-wheeling news media. Mr. Yudhoyono tried to quiet the outcry by appointing a fact-finding team of legal experts to look into the arrests. The two anticorruption deputies were freed after the release Tuesday of wiretapped conversations in which police officials, prosecutors and businessmen were recorded discussing plans to undermine the anticorruption agency. On Thursday, several members of the fact-finding team increased pressure on Mr. Yudhoyono to intervene in the dispute. They threatened to resign from the team if police officials and prosecutors named in the wiretaps were allowed to continue performing their duties.
