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Dec 11, 2009 Indonesians take to the streets By Patrick Guntensperger JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's political troubles are being compounded by a street movement led by several of the democracy-promoting non-governmental organizations with which he was once seen to have common cause. Traffic in the national capital was gridlocked on Wednesday on International Anti-Corruption Day as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the recent corruption and abuse-of-power scandals surrounding Yudhoyono's freshly elected government. More than a decade after toppling long-reigning strongman Suharto, Indonesia has yet to step out from the shadow of its systemically corrupt and bloated civil service, including the tainted national police force. Despite recent progress in prosecuting and convicting several corrupt officials, the country still perennially ranks near the top of international lists ranking the world's most corrupt countries. Perceptions that the national police and Attorney General's Office may have intentionally undermined the quasi-independent and highly successful Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on false charges of bribery and extortion, and allegations that top government officials may have pilfered funds from a state bailout of a mid-sized bank to bolster the government's re-election campaign, have badly dented Yudhoyono's domestic popularity and international credibility. If the allegations prove founded, some suggest the legitimacy of this year's election results could be called into question. The main political opposition, led by former premier Megawati Sukarnoputri's Democrat Party for Struggle (PDI-P), had earlier lodged a complaint against the legitimacy of polls, which saw Yudhoyono take over 60% of the presidential vote. It is not clear whether the current controversy and allegations that state funds were channeled towards his election campaign will motivate her to launch a new complaint. Political analysts also wonder whether the still nascent street movement could evolve along the lines of the potent political force that pushed Suharto from power in 1998. Some suggest that could happen if Yudhoyono is eventually linked to official attempts to undermine the KPK by jailing two of its deputy chairmen, Bibit Rianto and Chandra Hamzahon, on trumped-up charges due to fears it might investigate his role in alleged irregularities with the Century Bank bailout. These include still unproven allegations that funds were illegally funneled into his re-election campaign coffers. In July, Yudhoyono was swept to a second democratic mandate on the platform of his self-professed anti-graft credentials. Since taking the oath of office, his presidency has been plagued by one corruption scandal after another, sending his popularity into freefall in polls. Since the scandals broke, he has claimed to be a victim of "lies and character assassination" and in a nationally televised speech on Tuesday promised "jihad" against corruption. He also called to maintain the KPK's wiretapping capabilities in conducting investigations. That investigative capability earlier captured conversations that appeared to link Yudhoyono to a police and Attorney General's Office-led ploy to undermine the KPK. Yudhoyono's subsequent perceived failure to take a firm position on the bogus charges and temporary detention of two KPK deputy chairmen has galvanized waves of popular indignation that his previous anti-corruption posturing was little more than pandering to an issue that has deep resonance among national voters. With their release from detention and restitution to their positions to the KPK earlier this week, both chairmen have focused the KPK's attention on the 6.76 trillion rupiah (US$710 million) Century Bank bailout. Both the KPK and a parliamentary commission will investigate Yudhoyono's previous government's decision in November 2008 to bail out the mid-sized Bank Century. The KPK has said it will probe into how the bailout decision was taken and to whom the government rescue funds were channeled. The government's Supreme Auditing Agency has already released a report saying that as much as 40% of the bailout's funds were illegally disbursed. It is lost on few observers that the KPK has a 100% conviction rate for past cases of high-level graft and corruption it has undertaken. Under anti-corruption laws, officials face a potential one to 20 years in prison for guilty convictions; the parliamentary probe could lead to impeachment proceedings, though that seems unlikely, given Yudhoyono's coalition majority. Both the KPK and parliament will weigh why the ultimate cost of the Century Bank bailout grew from 632 billion rupiah to 10 times that amount and what role former Bank Indonesia governor and current Vice President, Boediono, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani may have had in any wrongdoing. Many analysts believe that the mid-sized Bank Century was an odd choice for a bailout, despite the administration's insistence that it was necessary to set the bank right to avoid a "domino effect" of systemic failure. Century Bank was one of dozens of local financial institutions, including many with larger balance sheets, which wobbled in the wake of last year's global financial meltdown. Some anti-corruption activists and Yudhoyono's political opponents suggest that the bailout was at the least a matter of political favoritism, precipitated by the fact that some of the largest contributors to his Partai Demokrat apparently held substantial accounts at Century Bank. These are the same voices that see a connection to the KPK frame-up, which they believe had Yudhoyono's at least tacit support in an effort to hamstring any potential investigation into the Century Bank bailout. Despite Yudhoyono's tendency towards consensus and compromise in dealing with complex political issues, the street protests launched against his administration are already testing his resolve. As a former member of Suharto's inner circle, he understands acutely the threat that coordinated street actions represent to his democratically elected government's survival. He has already made numerous speeches intimating that the rallies are being organized and infiltrated by his political opponents to stir chaos and mayhem. He has implied that the anti-corruption demonstrations represent an attempted coup d'etat against his government, but it's not clear to most that is the case. Patrick Guntensperger is a Jakarta-based journalist and teacher of journalism. His blog can be found at http://pagun-view.blogspot.com (Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
