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Anti-graft campaign will decide SBY's fate

A year after Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono came to power vowing to fight Indonesia's rampant corruption, more needs to be done to bring the main perpetrators to justice, observers and analysts say.

"After a year of SBY's [Yudhoyono's] government, the big corruptors are still on the loose," Indonesia's weekly Tempo magazine said in a recent issue. "Corruption in this nation has reached nauseating and critical proportions."

According to a report last Tuesday by Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International, things are improving in Indonesia, but only marginally.

Last year Indonesia scored 2 out of 10, with 10 denoting the least corrupt nation. A year later it managed a slightly better 2.2, but was still ranked 137th out of the 159 countries surveyed, near Ethiopia and Iraq.

Bribery is seen as commonplace in Indonesia. Judges are often bought off and the country's massive bureaucracy is riddled with layers of corruption involving endless backhanders.

"Yudhoyono has made some progress but mostly [it has been] symbolic," said Endy Bayuni, chief editor of the Jakarta Post.

Corruption plagues government reform and financial institutions and scares off much-needed foreign investment.

"Corruption is still a big problem here," Finnish Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Mari Johanna Kiviniemi said last week in Jakarta.

"I think it is one of the biggest obstacles for Finnish companies to invest here," she told the Jakarta Post. "In that sense, the Indonesian government still has a lot of work to do. It is not enough to just have policies. The government should also have the determination to implement them in practice."

Yudhoyono, who portrayed himself as a man of integrity in last year's election campaign, had promised "the fight against corruption is a top priority for my government in the next five years."

He boosted the powers of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which achieved a notable success when it jailed former Aceh governor Abudullah Puteh in April for buying a helicopter with state funds.

But Taufiequrachman Ruki, who heads the KPK, is the first to admit that the anti-corruption drive is in a mess and he lays the blame squarely at the door of corrupt government institutions.

"Legislation and law enforcement continue to be in a shambles," Ruki told a press conference last Tuesday. "KPK has not seen any clear move to get rid of corruption in government institutions."

"Corruption is not seen as the common enemy. KPK is seen as the common enemy," he said.

More and more high-profile corruption cases have surfaced in recent months, splitting opinion between those who see them as evidence the authorities are clamping down, and others who fear they only show what little is being achieved.

"Eradicating corruption will never work without first reforming the bureaucracy," Danang Widoyoko, the deputy coordinator of Indonesia Corruption Watch was quoted as saying in the Jakarta Post. "A general and integrated strategy to combat corruption must be implemented simultaneously, and it is very important that the president himself monitor this implementation."

Currently, two big corruption cases are making their way through the courts.

Three former executives of Indonesia's largest state bank are on trial for corruption involving 160 billion rupiah (US$15.9 million) and could face life jail terms if convicted.

The second case involves a former religious affairs minister who is accused of misusing millions of dollars in funds collected from Muslim hajj pilgrims.

But these represent only the tip of a very large iceberg and Yudhoyono's so far enduring popularity will soon plummet if more action is not taken to stamp out corruption, especially in government institutions, analysts said.
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