A week after two Australian newspapers earned the ire of the Indonesian government for publishing allegations that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, among other officials, abused his power, the foreign editor of another Australian newspaper has praised the leader as a "corruption buster."

In an opinion piece "Indonesian President a 'corruption buster'" published in the Australian on Thursday, Greg Sheridan writes: "Despite the revelations from WikiLeaks, the net contribution of SBY [Yudhoyono] to Indonesian life has been to reduce corruption and enhance the quality of governance."

The Age published a report last Friday based on the leaked cables, revealing US diplomats' views on several prominent Indonesian politicians. The explosive revelations included a note from the US Embassy in Jakarta that it had doubts about the integrity of Yudhoyono.

The cables allege that Yudhoyono stopped former Deputy Attorney General Hendarman Supandji from pursuing an alleged graft case against Taufik Kiemas, husband of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and that his family had received money from banking and construction tycoon Tomy Winata. It is also alleged that the president used Indonesian intelligence to spy on his political rivals.

But commentator Sheridan writes that the president acts no different from anybody else within Indonesian politics and that compared to former Asian leaders such as Suharto or Ferdinand Marcos, Yudhoyono is "a pillar of propriety and good governance."

"Indonesia is a country of 240 million people. Its politics are complex and sprawling. Like most democratic politics, they involve a great deal of money," he writes

"Senior politicians often need to raise and dispose of a great deal of money, perhaps indirectly, even if they are not profiting from it personally.

"Indonesia is also still a poor country and corruption is widespread. A great deal of that is what you might call salary corruption, in which individuals try to get their pay up to a point where they can take care of their families."

Though the conservative commentator conceded that moves made by Yudhoyono to combat corruption had been slow since he was re-elected in 2009, he reminded those critical of the president that he was responsible for establishing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"By any reasonable standard, SBY must be judged to be a corruption buster and someone who has tried to improve the overall quality of governance."