Indonesia's war on corruption will not see significant results for at least a generation, the country's president said yesterday, underscoring the extent of graft in the sprawling country.
Speaking to an Asian police officers' meeting in the capital, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also warned that Muslim militants blamed for a spate of bloody suicide bombings since 2000 remained a threat despite recent arrests.
"We have to remain vigilant about the security environment ahead of us," said Yudhoyono, appealing for help from the officers. "We have won many battles, but not yet the war [against terrorism]."
Yudhoyono won election in 2004 vowing to fight both terrorism and corruption.
The former general is considered by analysts to have made progress on both fronts, but is seen by some critics as too timid in the anti-graft fight.
"Fighting corruption is a long time effort," he said. "I might be overoptimistic, but I believe that corruption can be significantly reversed in one generation."
He then urged the Asian police to enhance cooperation in fighting corruption and money laundering to "send a signal loud and clear to corruptors anywhere that there is no safe haven for them to hide their stolen money."
A slew of former ministers and regional and national state officials are either currently on trial or have been sentenced to prison terms for corruption crimes since 2004, but vast areas of the state bureaucracy as well as the police force remain graft-ridden
Visiting World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz said he believed the current government was serious about cracking down on the problem, which he described as the major obstacle to foreign investment in the country.
"My advice to the government, to the parliament and the people is to create a clean government," Wolfowitz told reporters after meeting Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono was opening Interpol's 19th Asia Regional Conference, which was attended by 257 participants from 41 countries.
The three-day conference is expected to discuss combating corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism, human trafficking and money laundering.
Interpol president Jackie Selebi stressed the importance of cooperation to eradicate corruption in the society and the police. He said Interpol had begun to develop a global standard to combat corruption in police forces and services.
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