Indonesia moved closer to full democracy yesterday, swearing in legislators elected in landmark polls to a newly-reformed bicameral parliament free from military representation.
In a ceremony witnessed by outgoing President Megawati Sukarnoputri, 550 members of the upper House of Representatives and a 128-strong senate-style Regional Representatives Council took oaths to serve their country.
However, even before the legislators began their work, observers expressed doubts the political reforms would eradicate problems of endemic corruption, calling for tighter controls.
Supreme Court chairman Bagir Manan presided over the swearing-in of the two chambers, which make up the National Consultative Assembly -- the first fully elected parliament with no military and police presence.
The ceremony marks the culmination of democratic reforms which began after the resignation of military-backed dictator Suharto in 1998 and led to the country's first ever direct presidential elections last month.
Previously the national assembly was made up of 500 members of the House of Representatives and 200 people standing for the regions and interest groups including the military and police.
Legislators -- 70 percent of whom are new faces, including a former actor and a one-time Miss Indonesia -- pledged to work as "fairly and justly as possible" for their country.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's incoming president vowed to step up the fight against endemic graft and said courts should hand down sentences up to life in prison for officials and businessmen who steal from state coffers.
Speaking on a TV talk show late on Thursday, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also said he would ensure the country's police and military worked harder to secure the nation, which has been hit by a string of deadly bombings in recent years.
In a landmark Sept. 20 presidential run-off against incumbent Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesians voted overwhelmingly for Yudhoyono who campaigned on a platform of battling terrorism and cleaning up one of the world's most corrupt countries.
With more than 91 percent of votes counted, Yudhoyono commands an unassailable lead of 61 percent to Megawati's 39 percent. He is due to be sworn in on Oct. 20 once the election result is formally declared on Oct. 5.
Asked what he will do to people who steal from the state, Yudhoyono said: "They must be punished as severely as possible."
"If our legal system says a life sentence, we should give a life sentence. No bribing, no collusion, no reducing the sentence until it becomes light," the ex-army general said.
His comments mark some of the most detailed since the election.
Analysts are closely watching who Yudhoyono appoints as an attorney-general. They say promises to tackle graft will be hollow unless the attorney-general is someone who will work aggressively on high-profile graft cases that could incriminate powerful politicians and businessmen.
Sources close to Yudhoyono's camp say the strongest candidates for attorney-general are two respected independent lawyers, Marsillam Simanjuntak and Todung Mulya Lubis.
Yudhoyono has said he will not announce cabinet choices until the election commission declares the poll valid.
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