Indonesians take to the streets
By Patrick Guntensperger
JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's political troubles
are being compounded by a street movement led by several of the
democracy-promoting non-governmental organizations with which he was once seen
to have common cause.
Traffic in the national capital was gridlocked on Wednesday on International
Anti-Corruption Day as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the
recent corruption and abuse-of-power scandals surrounding Yudhoyono's freshly
elected government.
More than a decade after toppling long-reigning strongman Suharto, Indonesia
has yet to step out from the shadow of its
systemically corrupt and bloated civil service, including the tainted national
police force. Despite recent progress in prosecuting and convicting several
corrupt officials, the country still perennially ranks near the top of
international lists ranking the world's most corrupt countries.
Perceptions that the national police and Attorney General's Office may have
intentionally undermined the quasi-independent and highly successful Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) on false charges of bribery and extortion, and
allegations that top government officials may have pilfered funds from a state
bailout of a mid-sized bank to bolster the government's re-election campaign,
have badly dented Yudhoyono's domestic popularity and international
credibility.
If the allegations prove founded, some suggest the legitimacy of this year's
election results could be called into question. The main political opposition,
led by former premier Megawati Sukarnoputri's Democrat Party for Struggle
(PDI-P), had earlier lodged a complaint against the legitimacy of polls, which
saw Yudhoyono take over 60% of the presidential vote. It is not clear whether
the current controversy and allegations that state funds were channeled towards
his election campaign will motivate her to launch a new complaint.
Political analysts also wonder whether the still nascent street movement could
evolve along the lines of the potent political force that pushed Suharto from
power in 1998. Some suggest that could happen if Yudhoyono is eventually linked
to official attempts to undermine the KPK by jailing two of its deputy
chairmen, Bibit Rianto and Chandra Hamzahon, on trumped-up charges due to fears
it might investigate his role in alleged irregularities with the Century Bank
bailout. These include still unproven allegations that funds were illegally
funneled into his re-election campaign coffers.
In July, Yudhoyono was swept to a second democratic mandate on the platform of
his self-professed anti-graft credentials. Since taking the oath of office, his
presidency has been plagued by one corruption scandal after another, sending
his popularity into freefall in polls. Since the scandals broke, he has claimed
to be a victim of "lies and character assassination" and in a nationally
televised speech on Tuesday promised "jihad" against corruption. He also called
to maintain the KPK's wiretapping capabilities in conducting investigations.
That investigative capability earlier captured conversations that appeared to
link Yudhoyono to a police and Attorney General's Office-led ploy to undermine
the KPK. Yudhoyono's subsequent perceived failure to take a firm position on
the bogus charges and temporary detention of two KPK deputy chairmen has
galvanized waves of popular indignation that his previous anti-corruption
posturing was little more than pandering to an issue that has deep resonance
among national voters.
With their release from detention and restitution to their positions to the KPK
earlier this week, both chairmen have focused the KPK's attention on the 6.76
trillion rupiah (US$710 million) Century Bank bailout. Both the KPK and a
parliamentary commission will investigate Yudhoyono's previous government's
decision in November 2008 to bail out the mid-sized Bank Century.
The KPK has said it will probe into how the bailout decision was taken and to
whom the government rescue funds were channeled. The government's Supreme
Auditing Agency has already released a report saying that as much as 40% of the
bailout's funds were illegally disbursed.
It is lost on few observers that the KPK has a 100% conviction rate for past
cases of high-level graft and corruption it has undertaken. Under
anti-corruption laws, officials face a potential one to 20 years in prison for
guilty convictions; the parliamentary probe could lead to impeachment
proceedings, though that seems unlikely, given Yudhoyono's coalition majority.
Both the KPK and parliament will weigh why the ultimate cost of the Century
Bank bailout grew from 632 billion rupiah to 10 times that amount and what role
former Bank Indonesia governor and current Vice President, Boediono, and
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani may have had in any wrongdoing. Many analysts
believe that the mid-sized Bank Century was an odd choice for a bailout,
despite the administration’s insistence that it was necessary to set the bank
right to avoid a "domino effect" of systemic failure.
Century Bank was one of dozens of local financial institutions, including many
with larger balance sheets, which wobbled in the wake of last year's global
financial meltdown. Some anti-corruption activists and Yudhoyono's political
opponents suggest that the bailout was at the least a matter of political
favoritism, precipitated by the fact that some of the largest contributors to
his Partai Demokrat apparently held substantial accounts at Century Bank.
These are the same voices that see a connection to the KPK frame-up, which they
believe had Yudhoyono's at least tacit support in an effort to hamstring any
potential investigation into the Century Bank bailout. Despite Yudhoyono's
tendency towards consensus and compromise in dealing with complex political
issues, the street protests launched against his administration are already
testing his resolve.
As a former member of Suharto's inner circle, he understands acutely the threat
that coordinated street actions represent to his democratically elected
government's survival.
He has already made numerous speeches intimating that the rallies are being
organized and infiltrated by his political opponents to stir chaos and mayhem.
He has implied that the anti-corruption demonstrations represent an attempted
coup d'etat against his government, but it's not clear to most that is the
case.
Patrick Guntensperger is a Jakarta-based journalist and teacher of
journalism. His blog can be found at http://pagun-view.blogspot.com
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