The Corruption Court on Wednesday jailed two lawmakers – they were sacked by their political party after their arrest – for receiving bribes to speed up the amendment of the Bank Indonesia law and to smooth the settlement of a graft case. It will be much more difficult now for the House of Representatives and political parties to deny strong public perception that House members are no less corrupt than those they often criticize.
The court sentenced Hamka Yandhu and Anthony Zeidra Abidin – both from the Golkar Party – to three years and four-and-a-half years, respectively, for receiving gratuities in a scandal centered on the central bank. It is a relief the same court has also sent to jail two BI officials for bribing the legislators. In many cases only the bribers are punished, while the bribe recipients walk free.
On Monday, another House member, Al Amien Nur Nasution of the United Development Party (PPP), who was also fired by his party after his crime surfaced, was sentenced by the same court to eight years for bribery and blackmail. More legislators are also on the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) watch list.
Will the people who flaunt their pictures in so many places to woo voters ahead of April's legislative elections be truly different from the current legislators who are publicly perceived as corrupt? With at least three House members and dozens of regional councilors convicted of corruption or receiving bribes, will voters still have the enthusiasm to go to polling stations in April?
Even until last year, many members of the 550-strong House of Representatives tirelessly criticized the government – the President, ministers and senior government officials – and often threatened to block draft bills, including budgetary bills, because they claimed that as the representatives of the people, they were obligation to ensure this country was sterile from dirty practices like corruption.
While in the last two years courts have thrown many regional legislators – from Southeast Sulawesi province all the way to Sukabumi in West Java – in jail for stealing from state coffers, the House remained a bastion of the untouchables.
Because the House has final say on legislations, we wonder just how rampant corruption is in passing bills into laws. When any laws are passed after legislators receive bribes, it is very easy to imagine the effectiveness of the law in ensuring public and state interests. It is no wonder, then, that many of our laws are regarded as weak by academics and law enforcers.
Away from the capital, many local legislators have been jailed because they stole state money in primitive ways.
We just do not know how the political parties and their candidates will face the public during campaigning for the general elections. Perhaps they will take the easy shortcut: Pay celebrities, including dangdut singers, to entertain the masses. Because the voters know very well they have little trust in the candidates.
Although we know that political parties very likely have little interest in punishing their corrupt members, we just want to remind them not to underestimate people at the grass roots. The politicians are wrong if they think the media and some NGOs are exaggerating the issue of corruption in legislative bodies. Just talk to the people and they will give scathing assessments of the behavior of our politicians.
In the long run, the KPK is expected to bring more corrupt officials to court. The bribers and the recipients should be treated equally as criminals. What about the House? Many legislators are perhaps now also worried about their own fate, and that is one of the reasons why our House members are much less outspoken now on clean governance issues.
It is very tragic that laws were passed after those in the legislature responsible for them received bribes from those – from the government or private sector – with an interest in having the laws enacted.