SP/Novianti Setuningsih, Jakarta – Antigraft investigators appeared to have a bumper 2013, arresting the country's top judge, a serving governor and the former sports minister, among other high-profile targets.
But for activists at Indonesia Corruption Watch, these big-league suspects were the exception rather than the rule, with most of graft-related arrests in the course of the past year being made against low- and mid-ranking officials.
Agus Sunaryanto, ICW's deputy coordinator, said on Sunday that the common perception that law enforcement agencies such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Attorney General's Office and the National Police took a particularly hard line on corruption last year was flawed.
"The people who were arrested for corruption were predominantly the small fry," he said. He said the "vast majority" of the 1,271 people arrested or charged with corruption in 2013 fell into this category, but did not give a specific figure.
Some 557 civil servants were busted for graft during this period, along with 108 regional agency chiefs and 85 officials from government-owned enterprises, according to ICW research.
There were also 274 graft suspects named from the private sector, but tellingly, said Agus, only 62 from regional legislatures or the House of Representatives.
Tama Satrya Langkun, the head of ICW's investigative division, said this still represented an increase from the 38 legislators arrested and charged in 2012, but remained far too low given the pervasive extent of corruption at this level.
"Every year we see regional officials and government ministry officials being named corruption suspects. It's always these middle- and low-ranking officials," he said.
'Massive year'
The caliber of the suspects notwithstanding, however, Tama acknowledged that law enforcement, in particular the KPK, had experienced a strong year in terms of tackling corruption.
He said there were 560 cases under investigation last year, a significant rise from the 401 cases in 2012 and 436 in 2011. The total number of suspects was also up, compared to 877 in 2012 and 1,053 in 2011.
"The trend in fighting corruption over the past three years has been positive in terms of the number of cases being handled and suspects being named," Tama said.
He added that the combined losses incurred by the state as a result of corruption unveiled in 2013 was much larger than the previous year, although the latter figure was inflated by the Rp 6.7 trillion ($549 million) Bank Century bailout scandal, which occurred in 2008 but in which the KPK only named its first suspects in 2012.
"The state losses in 2013 amounted to Rp 7.3 trillion. The total in 2012 was higher, at Rp 10.4 trillion, but only because we counted the Bank Century case that year," he said. That effectively made 2013 a "massive year" in terms of fighting graft, Tama added.
Big scalps
Among the major graft suspects named last year was Akil Mochtar, at the time the chief justice of the widely respected Constitutional Court.
Akil was arrested in October for allegedly taking bribes to rule in favor of certain candidates in at least two regional election disputes being heard by the court. The KPK is investigating how many other cases he may have been involved in.
Also arrested in the same case was Ratu Atut Chosiyah, the widely lampooned governor of Banten, who was taken into the KPK's custody in December for allegedly arranging a bribe for Akil in connection with the election for district head in Lebak, Banten.
The governor and her family have long been accused of massive corruption through their virtual chokehold on seats of power throughout Banten, with Lebak one of the only districts where the family did not have one of its members or a crony in a position of authority.
Another major scalp claimed by the KPK in 2013 was that of Andi Mallarangeng, the former sports minister, who was arrested in October after having been named a suspect in December 2012 in connection with the Rp 2.5 trillion project to construct the Hambalang sports center in Bogor.
Andi's arrest was followed last month by that of Anas Urbaningrum, the former Democratic Party chairman, who is accused of having taken Rp 100 billion in kickbacks to help rig the awarding of the contract during his time as a legislator.
Going local
Agus said one of the key findings made by ICW last year was the discovery of the high number of graft cases in the regions, accounting for 98 percent of the 267 cases under investigation in the second half of 2013.
He said the provinces of North Sumatra and East Java had the highest number of cases, and called the decentralization of corruption to local governments a "national emergency," noting that 35 regional heads, including Ratu Atut, were named suspects during that time.
"Data from the Home Affairs Ministry show that a total of 390 regional heads have been charged in criminal cases since regional autonomy was introduced" in 2001, Agus said.
He added that while the general increase in the number of suspects, cases and confirmed losses indicated that law enforcement agencies were working harder to fight corruption, there was also an indication that the problem of graft was growing even more untenable, particularly at the local level, where both media scrutiny and the KPK's reach were limited.
He said relatively light prison sentences were partly to blame for not serving as much of a deterrent effect, but noted that the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court had been handing out longer sentences since last year, while the Supreme Court was also tending to give graft convicts longer sentences upon appeal.
Indonesia consistently ranks among the counties with the highest perceptions of corruption, according to Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index.
In the 2013 index, Indonesia was ranked 114th out of 170 countries surveyed. Although it was a rise of four places from the previous year, in reality, the TI report found little had changed in Indonesia. Its score, at 32, remained the same as in 2012, with the rise having more to do with the situation in other countries deteriorating.