When Megawati Sukarnoputri took over an Indonesian president last year, she pledged to crack down on corruption, abuses of power and the various secessionist attempts across the country. In the 13 months since then, however, very little has been done to put those promises into effect. The secessionist movements have not been intimidated — last week’s ambush on foreign workers in Papua province, which left two Americans and one Indonesian dead, has been blamed on local separatists. Meanwhile, despite a string of high-profile corruption cases, only one person has been jailed: former President Suharto’s son Tommy who was found guilty of masterminding the murder of a Supreme Court judge.
President Megawati will presumably, then, take some satisfaction at this week’s guilty verdict announced by a Jakarta court against the speaker of Parliament, Akbar Tandjung, on corruption charges. She will use it to claim that despite delays, her attempts to clean up the country, especially its judicial system (one of the world’s worst, according to the UN) are finally getting somewhere. Others in the country may well be more skeptical. If Tandjung is indeed guilty of having diverted $4 million of government funds earmarked for food packages for victims of the 1998 Asian financial collapse, then the three-year sentence handed down has to be seen as extremely lenient: abuse of power and corruption carries a maximum penalty in Indonesia of 20 years. In the event, even the prosecution had demanded only four years. Many Indonesians may well conclude that it is his position as head of the Golkar party, formerly the sole ruling party but now the second biggest in Megawati’s coalition government, that has protected him.
Perhaps the most damaging aspect about the case is that, pending his appeal, Tandjung intends to hold onto the speakership and leadership of Golkar. Unfortunately, even if the Indonesian legal system is, as a result of the case, no longer quite so open to accusations of corruption and ignoring the misdeeds of the rich and powerful, it remains notoriously slow: appeals to the high court and then the Supreme Court can take years. Despite being found guilty of corruption, Tandjung could therefore remain free and in a position of immense power for a long time to come. That is bound to stir up public resentment and anger. It is going to make Parliament, indeed the entire political system, look tainted.
No one can underestimate the difficulties the case presents Megawati: that the head of the second largest party in government should be found guilty of corruption is a political nightmare; it could bring the coalition crashing down. But to have him carry on in his positions of power, as if nothing had happened, is far worse. It is a public relations catastrophe. The message it sends is that, in Indonesia, if you are rich and powerful, you are still above the law.
If Megawati wants Indonesians to believe that her administration is not just committed to reform but actually going to make things different, she is going to have to find a way of forcing Tandjung to step down from his powerful posts. Otherwise, they will conclude that she is no better than her corrupt and incompetent predecessors, and turn against her.
