Nivell Rayda – This year will go down as one of the darkest for the country's antigraft fighters, as witnessed by several attempts to undermine the powerful Corruption Eradication Commission, a discussion heard on Monday.
Danang Widoyoko, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said at least 13 attempts were made to thwart antigraft investigations undertaken by the commission, or KPK, ranging from moves to restrict the commission's power to an alleged plot to fabricate a case against two KPK deputy commissioners.
"Not a single day went by without someone trying to limit the KPK's power," Danang told the discussion, which was organized by a donor organization, the Partnership for Governance Reform.
"Corrupt officials tried everything, from political moves at the House of Representatives to resorting to legal measures like filing for a judicial review."
Danang added that there were even subtler attempts to undermine the commission, such as transferring investigators and auditors stationed at the KPK back to their respective institutions.
Wicaksono Sarosa, chairman of the Partnership, said that through its inaction, the government was also guilty of undermining the antigraft commission.
"Throughout the year, the KPK was under attack from all sides. We saw a lack of leadership from SBY in his failure to do something [concrete] about the matter," he said, referring to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono had made the eradication of corruption the main focus of his re-election campaign, but Danang said the president had so far failed to live up to his promises.
"If SBY was really serious about fighting corruption, he should really have stepped in from the start. Not just when his popularity decreased," Danang said.
He pointed to a survey by Kompas daily, which indicated that the president's approval rating had dropped from 70 percent early this year to about 40 percent in October.
The sharp decline coincided with the arrest of KPK deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah for alleged abuse of power and extortion.
Following intense public pressure, Yudhoyono formed a fact- finding team that concluded the case against the deputies had been fabricated. The Attorney General's Office later dropped the charges against the two.
Wicaksono, however, said the incident had also brought about some positive developments. "Bibit and Chandra's case showed that people have faith in the KPK and support its quest to eradicate corruption," he said.
Since its establishment in late 2003, the KPK has had a 100 percent conviction rate, jailing many high-ranking officials and politicians for corruption.