Noviani Setuningsih – The latest Corruption Perception Index has revealed that most incidences of corruption in Indonesia are committed by lawmakers.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Adnan Pandu Praja noted during the announcement of winners of the Anti-Corruption Film Festival (ACCFF) in Jakarta on Saturday that Indonesia has topped the list of corrupt countries in the last four years.
Adnan said such practices involved groups as was evident in the distribution of travelers checks to several members of House Commission XI by Miranda Goeltom, who paid to secure a position as Bank Indonesia's senior deputy governor in 2004. She, along with 25 other lawmakers, has been convicted.
Adnan said group corruption also involved entire families such as in the Koran procurement graft case at the Religious Affairs Ministry, where lawmaker Zulkarnaen Djabbar involved his son Dendy Prasetya. Both have also been convicted.
Adnan said corrupt practices in Asean countries were growing in numbers as reflected in the CPI, which gave Indonesia a score of 32 out of 100 – putting the country in the 114th position out of 177 countries. The score was the same in 2012.
Adnan also expressed his concerns about the revision of the anti-corruption law where the government is considering declassifying corruption as an extraordinary crime.
Adnan said he hoped lawmakers would reject the proposal ahead of the major holidays and appreciated the Anti-Corruption Court's tough sentencing on those who were found guilty, saying the court treated corruption as an extraordinary crime and imposed severe penalties. "The latest development is encouraging and it needs to be maintained," he added.
The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court sentenced former National Police Traffic Corps chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo to 10 years in prison for graft and money laundering in a driving simulator project.
It also sentenced businessman Ahmad Fathanah to 14 years in prison for graft and corruption in a beef import quota case at the Agriculture Ministry and former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq to 16 years in prison in the same case.
The Supreme Court has also taken a tougher move against corruptors with its recent decision to almost triple the sentence of former lawmaker Angelina Sondakh to 12 years prison from only four and a half years handed down by the Anti-Corruption Court and ordered her to repay close to Rp 40 billion ($3.3 million) in state losses.
KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto said the KPK continued to face challenges in its attempt to freeze assets from corporations that are believed to be linked to corruption or money laundering.
Indonesia does not have a precedent in that case thereby making it difficult for the anti-graft body to make the move, according to Bambang. Bambang said the KPK hopes to resolve the situation by studying the methodologies employed in other countries that have frozen cooperations or charged them for corruption.
Bambang acknowledged that the anti-corruption law did not have the weight needed to charge cooperations who have committed corruption practices by corporations was stipulated under the anti-corruption law but the law was not comprehensive enough to charge corporations.
Indonesia performed worse than the Philippines this year – which ranked 105th – a country it has beaten in previous years' rankings.