Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – Public trust in the government's efforts to fight corruption has plummeted from 81 percent last year to 29 percent this year, a survey has found.
The Global Corruption Report issued Saturday by corruption watchdog Transparency International and pollster Gallup International found that 50 percent of 1,000 Indonesians interviewed in mid-2006 said efforts to fight corruption were not effective.
Nineteen percent of respondents said the government had done almost nothing to eradicate corruption, the report said.
"We found no significant measures taken by the government to address the problem," Transparency International Indonesia patron Todung Mulya Lubis said. "The figure is worrying."
The public has long been skeptical of the will of the police, prosecutors and judiciary to end corruption. Respondents to the survey ranked the police and the judiciary as the second and third most corrupt institutions after parliament.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has recently come under fire, with critics saying it has been selective in its targets.
High profile cases implicating officials in the military or officials who have the backing of major political parties have been left untouched. The KPK is only willing to go after small offenders, critics say.
"We recommend that the government reform law enforcers such as the police and prosecutors and the military as well so that they can become a supporting agent instead of a burden in the effort to fight corruption," Transparency International Indonesia said in a statement.
Todung said he found lamentable Vice President Jusuf Kalla's statement last week that the war on corruption had excessively targeted government officials, slowing down the economy.
While the anti-graft drive has slackened over the past year, those accuse of corruption have started striking back. Several officials convicted of graft have filed judicial reviews with the Constitutional Court, seeking the annulment of the laws that established the KPK and the anti-corruption court. "This is real. They are fighting back," Todung said.
Anti-graft activists are concerned that the KPK and the anti-corruption court could soon be defunct as the Constitutional Court has a "tendency to issue controversial rulings" and "(is) not responsive to the nation's anti-corruption drive," Todung said.
Last week the court struck down the law mandating the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was mean to enable to provide justice to victims of human rights abuses.
In 2005, Transparency International Indonesia's survey found that political parties were seen as the most corrupt group in the country. Todung said that "money politics" was regarded by many as the primary reason for Indonesia's corruption problem.
"We can see it from the ongoing gubernatorial election processes that are pervaded with money politics. Those winning the elections want some kind of a return of their 'investment'. That's why they become corrupt," he said.