LAKSAMANA.Net, June 13, 2004 11:56 PM
Review - Politics: Crime and Punishment
Laksamana.Net - Golkar Party candidates for the presidency and vice presidency,
Gen. (ret) Wiranto and Solahuddin Wahid, Tuesday (8/6/04) promised jobs and
security would be the main pillars of their campaign platform.
Weak law enforcement, they said, is the main factor behind the low public trust in the
government, leading to security problems, recurring violations of the law and the
extended economic crisis.
Former Armed Forces chief Wiranto, who has been charged over atrocities in East
Timor, in a statement titled: Vision, mission and main policies to save the nation, set
five major agenda items - law enforcement, education, the economy, security and
protection of human rights.
Wiranto's campaign team leader Slamet Effendi Yusuf said in the first 100 days in
office, both men would take tough action to curb corruption among officials and
businesspeople, by bringing all unresolved high-profile graft cases to court.
They would also raise salaries of the police and judiciary, so that "there is no reason
for them to be involved in bribery," according to Yusuf.
Within the same time scale Wiranto would revive the civil rights of minorities, including
Chinese-Indonesians, to enable their active participation in politics, he added.
Bringing gross human rights violation cases to court would take a bit longer - a year to
be precise - and the pair were quoted as saying that "legal and human rights
violations should be settled with wisdom without creating new problems, and that a
truth and reconciliation commission will be established to handle the problem."
As deputy chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in
2002, running mate Wahid had led a team investigating the May riots and summoned,
in vain, several military officers to be questioned, including Wiranto himself.
However, Yusuf said: "We believe that Wiranto has nothing to do with gross human
rights' violations."
On Monday Wiranto took his campaign to Bali, the scene of Indonesia's worst ever
terrorist act in its history in October 2002.
Golkar has a formal alliance with the National Awakening Party (PKB), and PKB
chairman Alwi Shihab told the crowd that a Wiranto presidency would strive to "create
an Indonesia which is free from extremism and terrorism."
"Do you need jobs? Do you need security? Do you want tourists to return to Bali?"
Wiranto asked hundreds of his supporters at a rally.
Megawati promises Legal Certainty
Wiranto's anti-crime pledge came as incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri's
legal manifesto was being made public. If elected, Megawati and running mate
Hasyim Muzadi would move to ensure legal order and legal certainty to win the
public's trust, the manifesto said.
By working to uphold the rule of law, they aimed to create a more secure,
corruption-free business environment. The manifesto outlined a general vision to
create a "just, clean and democratic Indonesia" by integrating the legal system and
"enhancing the personnel professionalism" of law enforcers.
Megawati would integrate the "four pillars" of the legal system to boost coordination
and encourage the supremacy of law, campaign legal coordinator Trimedya Panjaitan
said Monday (7/6/04).
"Police, prosecutors, lawyers and judges should have a similar understanding of how
to handle a case. We don't want to see a case floating back and forth from the police
to the prosecutor's office any more," he said.
"We want to resolve 10 to 20 high profile cases, especially corruption cases, during
the first 100 days of Megawati's government," Panjaitan said.
During the same period, Megawati would restructure the police and the Attorney
General's Office. Trimedya said judges and police could be retrenched to improve "the
professionalism" of law enforcers.
The Megawati government would also speed up the modernization of the criminal
codes, he said. "We inherited the criminal codes from the Dutch colonial government
hundreds of years ago. It is time for us to create our own laws that suit the current
circumstances. Later, we will also modify civil law. I think this will be a two-year
objective," Trimedya said.
On human rights issues, a Megawati government would continue to endeavor to bring
all those charged with abuses to court, he said. Trimedya acknowledged the AGO
had been slow in bringing to justice those responsible for the 1984 Tanjung Priok
massacre, the July 1996 shootings and the May 1998 riots.
Megawati would also bring former president Suharto to court if she is re-elected. "We
will make sure the case will be resolved. A trial would be possible if the current
Attorney General (MA Rachman) is replaced by someone outside the institution,"
Panjaitan told a local newspaper on Monday.
He said Megawati and running mate Hasyim Muzadi, the leader of Nahdlatul Ulama,
would press the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to recheck Suharto's health with an
independent team.
Panjaitan said the first thing Megawati would do would be to replace Rachman,
though he did not attempt to explain why the president had not ditched Rachman
before now, nor why she had not taken Suharto to trial in her three years as president.
Suharto, ranked by Transparency International as the most corrupt world leader in
recent world history, celebrated his 83rd birthday on Tuesday (8/6/04), with five of his
six children, grandchildren and a number of his lawyers. Last month he was treated in
hospital for more than a week for intestinal bleeding. He received treatment in 1999 for
a minor stroke and in 2002 for heart and lung problems.
Haz Promises More
Vice President Hamzah Haz promised on Tuesday (8/6/04) that if he were elected
president in the July 5 election, in two years time he would make elementary and high
school education free.
"We know that our people are suffering from material as well as moral poverty," Haz
told supporters at Kemayoran in Central Jakarta.
"We are poor because of corruption, because of drugs and the US has accused our
country of being a haven for terrorists. We will root out corruption, drugs and we will
fight terrorism," the vice president said. "Without education there's no way we can
advance," he said.
"Tomorrow will be better than today. That's our promise," said his running mate,
former transport minister Agum Gumelar,
PDI Takeover Probe
A joint team investigating the infamous bloody takeover of the Indonesian Democratic
Party (PDI) offices on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta, on July 27, 1996, announced
Monday (7/6/04) that it plans to speed up the investigation. The attack claimed five
lives, injured 149 and left 23 others missing.
The team, which was established in July 2000 at the suggestion of the House of
Representatives, reportedly submitted nine dossiers to the prosecutor's office.
In December 2003, the court tried for the first time five suspects in the case, including
two mid-ranking officers and three civilians. Only one of these -- a civilian -- was found
guilty and sentenced to two months in jail.
Military Police Commander Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. said the team, together with
police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) had committed to "finish it as soon as
possible."
At least one presidential candidate, the Democratic Party's Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, could be implicated in the case, as he was Chief of Staff of the Jakarta
Military when the incident occurred. He was not, however, in the list of 22 suspects
released by the military police in 2002.
Ten are from the military, including former Jakarta military chief Let. Gen. (ret)
Sutiyoso -- now the Jakarta governor -- former Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen.
Hamaminata, and former chief of National Intelligence Maj. Gen. Zacky Anwar
Makarim.
National police spokesman Insp. Gen. Paiman denied that the sudden refocus on the
case had anything to do with the forthcoming presidential election.
Prudential Wins Appeal
The Supreme Court overturned Monday (7/6/04) the controversial bankruptcy verdict
imposed on PT Prudential Life Assurance, the local arm of Britain's second-biggest
insurer Prudential by the Jakarta Commercial Court in April.
One of the three judges who made the new ruling, Abdul Rahman Saleh, said the
case, brought by a former consultant who claimed he was owed $400,000, and made
a claim for around $40 million as well as filing a bankruptcy petition, was a contractual
dispute and should never have had a bankruptcy hearing.
Prudential was forced to halt its Indonesian operations in the first week after the
bankruptcy ruling was handed down but a judge then allowed the company to resume
business.
Ba'asyir Challenges Police
The national police were in court in Jakarta Monday (7/6/04) over their case against
terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the militant Islamic cleric they accuse of being the
spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Lawyers, petitioning for the release of the 65-year-old Ba'asyir, said insufficient
evidence existed to justify his arrest, and claimed the decision followed pressure from
the United States.
Lawyer Achmad Michdan, in a lawsuit against national police chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar,
asked the South Jakarta district court to order the release of the cleric.
He said police seemed to have no new evidence against Ba'asyir and since his
re-arrest were repeating questions they had previously asked him.
"The defendant (Bachtiar) enthusiastically conducted the legal process against the
plaintiff after the arrival of the US Homeland Security Secretary in Indonesia and after
the extraordinary activities of the US ambassador to Indonesia in intervening and
pressuring several officials and public figures," Michdan said.
Police said evidence against the suspect was well documented, and that Ba'asyir had
a history of evading justice.
Ba'asyir, who is being held at Jakarta police headquarters, was not present in court.
He could be held for up to six months for investigation before formal charges are laid
and a trial convened.
Death Sentence for Brazilian
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, a Brazilian hang-gliding expert, was sentenced to
death on Monday (7/6/04) for attempting to smuggle 13.4 kg (29.5 lb) of cocaine into
the country.
Moreira hid the drugs in the frame of a hang-glider, which was searched at Jakarta
international airport last August.
"He is guilty of importing a type one narcotic, cocaine, and the court punishes the
defendant with the death penalty," said presiding judge Suprapto.
"The defendant was one link in an international narcotics network that has threatened
the country," said the judge.
Only one drug offender, a Malaysian, has been executed in the last decade although
a dozen or so, many of them Africans, are on death row.
Tough Stance on Foreigners
State Intelligence Agency (BIN) is to be given a bigger role in monitoring the issuance
of work permits for foreigners, Immigration official Muhammad Indra said Wednesday
(9/6/04).
Immigration officials will begin "coordinated" cooperation under a new Directorate
General of Intelligence and Immigration Examination, Indra said, though claiming the
move was not related to the recent expulsion order of Sidney Jones, the Southeast
Asia director of the International Crisis Group (ICG).
"We've been planning for this unit for the last several years," he said. "This is purely
for immigration purposes. There will be coordinated work with BIN but they will not
have any authority within our decision-making policies."
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