Indonesian president under fire over anti-graft inquiry

Updated November 24, 2009 21:06:54

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's attempt to calm public anger over a corruption scandal has been dubbed a failure. The President has been responding to an independent report he commissioned, which roundly criticised police and the attorney-general for bringing trumped-up charges against two senior members of the national Anti-corruption Commission. Critics branded the President's nationally televised speech weak and ineffective and the affair is threatening to destabilise his second term in office. However, the head of the investigating team has come out in support of President Yudhoyono.

Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Adnan Nasution, lawyer and head of the special investigation team into the KPK scandal; Wimar Witoelar, Indonesian political commentator

SNOWDON: It's turning into one of Indonesia's biggest scandals since the fall of Suharto. Convincing evidence has emerged over recent weeks of a conspiracy at the very top of the police force and the attorney general's office in bringing false bribery charges against two senior members of the anti-corruption commission or KPK. The success of the KPK has made it powerful enemies and a hero to the public. The independent report recommended the charges against the two KPK officials be dropped and a full investigation of the police and the attorney general's office be undertaken. The president's speech did little to dispel public anger over the scandal, as the comments of several street vendors indicate.

JAKARTA CITIZENS: It was not clear to me I think he should take firm action, sack the police chief and the Attorney General. He has to be more explicit on this case. Is he dropping the case or not? I'm confused.

SNOWDON: The fact finding investigative team appointed by the President to look into the scandal included well regarded, established lawyers and academics, including its chairman, Adnan Nasution. He says the President went as far as he could within the law in suggesting in a round-about way the case against the KPK officials be dropped.

NASUTION: The message is clear although the way he explained it he didn't say it straightforward, but using some metaphor to explain what he actually means. And for that purpose he gave instruction or directives, let us say directives to the chief of police to halt the case from going to court. Very very careful not to interfere in the legal process. He said that many times.

SNOWDON: An advisor to a former President , Wimar Witoleor agrees that President Yudhoyono can't interfere directly in the legal process.

WITOLOER: I think it's a case of too little too late becasue the content, the direction of the speech is fine but it's too late for him to give out generalities. He should spell out specific actions like what does he want to do with the police chief, what does he want to do with the Attorney General, what does he want to do with the Corruption Eradication Commission. I think he has a lot of work to do to repair the damage because he started with a very large amount of political capital but he squandered it over his way of problem-solving which seems like a lot of muddling through.

SNOWDON: The police are yet to indicate if the bogus case against the KPK officials will be dropped. President Yudhoyono remains under pressure to sack the chief of police and the attorney general. He was swept into a second term with a strong majority in July's election on the back of his anti-corruption drive, which had some high profile wins. But a second case might pose an even bigger threat to SBY's administration and reputation.

He's just been handed a report which found last year's bailout of the private, Bank Century was unlawful. The $US700 million bailout was authorised by the head of the Central Bank, and now Vice President, Boediono and the Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Both are well regarded ministers. Adnan Nasution believes there needs to be a thorough investigation of their role.

NASUTION: Not only Boediono or Sri Mulyani, the Vice President and the Mnister of Finance but other people, the officers which authorised to give the money to Bank Century.

SNOWDON: Some of the Bank Century bailout money was later paid into the President's re-election campaign by individual donors. Political commentator Wimar Witoloer says the bailout saved the bank from failing during the global financial crisis. And he accepts the President's denials of any personal wrongdoing.

WITOLOER: I don't think he's implicated in a serious sense. He might be implicated in the indirect sense in that it was his officers who made the decision. Their mistakes were technical rather than those of moral intent. One cannot believe that people like Boediono and Sri Mulyani would in any way be implicated in criminal wrongdoing. If some of the money seeps back into the President it could happen but it would be largely coincidental. He will be able to hold his own.