Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – More public figures are adding their voices to the chorus of opposition against a planned government decree that would protect officials from prosecution for "erroneous" policies.
The decree would diminish government control of the public sector and hamper efforts to ensure good and clean governance in Indonesia, which is ranked among the world's most corrupt countries, critics say.
"We don't need a ruling that would prevent us from creating a good and clean government... one of the main goals of the current regime," People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid said.
Hidayat said he would personally ask President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to drop the decree.
Kalla initiated the drafting of the regulation early this year with Home Minister M. Ma'ruf.
Internal mechanisms in government agencies could deal with alleged corruption cases without necessarily having to involve the police, prosecutors and the courts, Kalla said.
Ma'ruf said last month the decree was necessary because many regional officials were not doing their jobs over fears they would be prosecuted for policy mistakes.
These worries have led to over-cautious spending and some development project delays, he said. The central bank has reported that regencies and municipalities spent only an average of 20 percent of their total budgets last year.
However, the regulation's critics have dismissed the fears as exaggerated and said honest officials had nothing to fear from law enforcement agencies.
In the draft decree, law enforcers can only start graft investigations into officials after the government's Internal Oversight Body (APIP) conducts a preliminary probe. They must also get permission from governors or government ministers to begin the investigations, according to the draft.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) advisor Abdullah Hehamahua said the planned decree would hinder his office's work. "The regulation would make our jobs more complicated and... would erode our powers and authority, which are mandated by the law," he said.
The 2002 law on the KPK gives the commission the right to investigate any individual based on reports and evidence provided by the public.
Regional Representatives Council deputy chairman La Ode Ida said the decree would make it more difficult for people to control state officials via the commission.
"If the public, particularly the media, cannot balance the power of government agencies then who will?" he said. La Ode said the decree would give top government officials extra powers and would discourage people from exercising their right to report graft offenses.
He said the decree was part of "systematic" attempts to restrict the public scrutiny of officials, which included the bill on state secrecy currently before the House of Representatives.
Press Council member Sabam Leo Batubara noted a journalist in Medan in North Sumatra was recently sentenced to a year in jail after reporting on a graft case implicating a university rector. "This sentence will discourage journalists and people in general from reporting graft cases," he said.