Indonesian President vows legal reform amid scandal

Thu, Nov 5 06:29 PM

Enlarge Photo Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono speaks at a news conference at the presidential office in...

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday promised legal reforms to tackle corruption, as two top law enforcement officials quit over a suspected plot to undermine the country's anti-graft agency.

Yudhoyono said he wanted to eradicate the "legal mafia", in a reference to the network of corrupt judges, lawyers and law enforcers who pervert the legal system in a country where widespread graft is seen as a drag on growth and investment.

The focus on legal reform, one of several policies he pledged when he announced his new government's 100-day programme, coincides with a huge scandal involving the attorney-general's office and police, and amid mounting public frustration over the rotten state of the law enforcement institutions.

"I say to the people of Indonesia, who feel like they have become victims of this mafia in the past, or perhaps even now are a victim, to report this," Yudhoyono told a press conference.

"Let us make our system clean. Let's knock down corruption."

Earlier on Thursday, a top police officer and the deputy attorney-general agreed to resign, according to law enforcement officials, marking a rare case of Indonesian officials taking responsibility for wrongdoing. The two men were suspected of involvement in a plot against Indonesia's anti-graft agency.

The resignations came after a respected team of legal experts, appointed by President Yudhoyono this week to investigate the suspected plot, recommended that the two men should resign.

"I'm relieved and happy because it justifies the system works and that the president is doing the right thing," said political commentator Wimar Witoelar, who has referred to the scandal as Indonesia's Watergate.

However, analysts said the resignations alone would not solve the problems of corruption within the police and attorney-general's office, and further reforms and a shake-up of the key law enforcement agencies were needed.

"If this opportunity is not used by the president to reform the institutions, I am afraid people would use the same way as in the 1998 to do the reform themselves, and it will not be a pretty sight," said Imam Prasodjo, a sociologist at the University of Indonesia, referring to the 1998 riots that forced former President Suharto to resign.

MOST CORRUPT

Transparency International has previously named the police and judiciary as among Indonesia's most corrupt institutions and the prospect of a clean-up of these agencies would be positive for reform.

Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto -- two of four deputy chiefs at the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, which has been at the forefront of the fight against corruption -- were detained last week.

Police said they were suspected of graft and abuse of power.

The two KPK officials denied the allegations, and in their defence submitted tapes to the Constitutional Court of conversations between a businessman and several people alleged to be in the police and the attorney-general's office, in which the various players discussed plans to undermine the KPK.

The tape recordings, which were played in court this week, were done as part of a KPK investigation of Indonesian businessman Anggoro Widjojo and his brother Anggodo.

Indonesians have expressed outrage at the apparent attempts by the businessman and officials to harm the KPK, and there were widespread calls for those involved to be fired.

Police refused to charge Anggodo this week, despite the evidence from the tapes, prompting further public outrage.

Susno Duadji, chief of detectives in the national police force, and Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga were among the various law enforcement agency officials named in the tapes.

Ritonga told a news conference on Thursday night that he had resigned as deputy attorney-general but would remain as a prosecutor. When asked about his role in the alleged plot, he declined to comment.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri, when asked by reporters whether Duadji would resign over the case, said: "He will definitely resign, but we are following procedures." (Additional reporting by Gde Anugrah Arka, Olivia Rondonuwu, Telly Nathalia and Sunanda Creagh; Writing by Sara Webb; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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