Anti-graft fight must not harm economy: SBY

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) urged leaders of the country’s law enforcement agencies to improve coordination, especially when dealing with graft cases, so that their work does not hinder the country’s economic recovery.

Yudhoyono delivered the statement during a meeting with National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo, Attorney General Basrief Arief, and Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad at the President’s office, Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said on Thursday.

Also attending the meeting were Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman Hadi Poernomo, Supreme Court chief justice Hatta Ali and Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin.

“The President presented the government’s package of economic policies to the leaders of the law enforcement bodies. He said that good coordination and synergy between law enforcement agencies and the government was necessary to help safeguard the country’s economic situation and support the government’s economic programs,” Djoko told reporters after the meeting. [Click here for full article…]

Police reform: What reform?

Fourteen years after being separated from the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police remains one of the few state institutions untouched by reform.

Integrity and transparency have increasingly become rare ideals within the police force after policy makers expanded its law enforcement mandate — a decision that aimed to end 35 years of military domination of security affairs.

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo has regularly boasted of the progress in police reform and integrity since 2000, but without detailing any benchmark or outcome of the process.

The classic tales of extortion and kickbacks in dealing with the police have not even slightly abated.

Stories of a pervasive culture of kickbacks emanate from the earliest stages of recruitment and permeate the entire process until an officer receives his or her posting.

The force is literally a haven for practicing corruption.

[Click here for full article…]

Scholars, intellectuals endorse Prabowo’s bid

The Jakarta Globe – A group of university professors and intellectuals announced on Wednesday its collective endorsement of Gerindra Party presidential candidate and chief patron Prabowo Subianto, giving the retired army general another moral boost ahead of the upcoming presidential election. Former Bandung-based Padjadjaran University rector Yuyun Wirasasmita, who read the group’s endorsement during a gathering […]