Thousands of Muslim protesters urged Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday to better fight government corruption that is tainting his second term in office.
Yudhoyono was re-elected in a landslide victory in July on a promise to stamp out systemic corruption. But his popularity has already been tested by scandals surrounding Indonesia’s anti-graft commission and a 6.76 trillion rupiah (US$715 million) government bailout of a bank.
Supporters of the Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state, staged a peaceful protest in downtown Jakarta calling for the president to bring to justice corrupt government officials. Police estimated some 2,000 protesters attended the rally.
“We want the government to really prosecute — as they promised to — all the government officials involved in corruption,” protest organizer Ismail Yusanto said.
“The capitalist system has ruined our economy. That’s the source of all problems in our country,” Yusanto said at the rally.
The group urged the government to apply Islamic law as the only way to tackle corruption.
Many of the protesters carried banners condemning the capitalist system as the root of corruption.
“The Bank Century scandal proves the failure of capitalism system,” read one big banner. “By adopting Shariah under Islamic caliphate, Indonesia is free from corruption,” said another.
Supporters of the group held similar protests in Surabaya and Yogyakarta involving several hundred people. Organizers said those demonstrations ended peacefully.
Yudhoyono faces questions over the last year’s bailout of a bank, which critics have alleged is full of irregularities. Lawmakers launched an inquiry last week into allegations that the bailout benefited Yudhoyono’s re-election campaign — a claim he has denied.
The government’s struggle against graft has also been hurt by a months-long battle between the top anti-graft agency and rival police and prosecutors. An investigation found that senior law enforcers tried to frame anti-graft officials from the Corruption Eradication Commission on fabricated charges of bribery and blackmail.
The commission has been key to efforts to fight corruption in recent years.
The corruption index of advocacy group Transparency International ranks Indonesia 111th out of 180 countries.
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