Multa Fidrus, Banten – Hundreds of high school and university students took to the streets Thursday in Serang, Banten. They were not there to protest but to help prosecutors circulate mug shots of 14 fugitive corruption suspects.
"The flyers might jog somebody's memory," Nurlita Ambarawati from Tirtayasa University told The Jakarta Post while handing out photocopies of the police photographs to motorists at an intersection on Jl. Ciceuri.
Dozens of students were also seen around the Banten administration office, intersections on Jl. Lopang and the offices of other state institutions.
I Gede Sudiatmadja, intelligence assistant at the Banten Prosecutor's Office, said the flyers were being distributed in conjunction with International Anticorruption Day on Dec. 9.
"The Attorney General's Office is staging the nationwide campaign, in which all prosecutor's offices are distributing pictures of wanted embezzlers to the public," he said.
Although the suspects are not named, the face of former Banten Council speaker Dharmono K. Lawi – currently a House of Representatives member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – is familiar to members of the public.
Last year, Dharmono and two former council deputy speakers – Muslim Jamaludin and Mufrodi Muchsin – were convicted of misusing budgetary funds comprising Rp 10.5 billion earmarked to build a housing complex for provincial council members, and Rp 3.5 billion allocated for councillors' welfare allowances.
Dharmono was sentenced to four-and-a-half-years' jail, while Muslim and Mufrodi got four years each. The three also were fined Rp 200 million each.
Former Banten governor Djoko Munandar, who disbursed the money for the housing complex, was sentenced last year to two years' jail in the same case.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono suspended Djoko pending the trial, handing his duties on an interim basis to his deputy Ratu Atut Chosiyah, the elected governor for the 2006-2011 period.
The Supreme Court turned down appeals filed by Dharmono, Muslim and Mufrodi. However, only Mufrodi is currently doing jail time.
Dharmono has not been seen since the sentencing, while Muslim died in Serang Hospital due to respiratory failure after serving two months of his sentence. "Finding Dharmono is our priority... The sentence must be executed," Sudiatmadja said.
In Depok, members of the University of Indonesia student board distributed 5,000 books titled Understanding and Eliminating Corruption to civil servants at the Depok municipal administration office, legislative council members, judges and employees at the Depok District Court and people at shopping malls, bus terminals and other public spaces.
"This is our contribution to the nationwide campaign," the student body's chairman, Ahmad Fathul Bari, was quoted as saying by Tempointeraktif news website Friday, adding that the book was produced by the Corruption Eradication Commission.