Publication
Parliament and the Eradication of Corruption: “ Overcoming the Gaps between Aims and Practices"
In collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, The Habibie Center held a seminar discussion on “Parliament and the Eradication of Corruption – Overcoming the Gaps between Aims and Practicesâ€Â at Hotel Atlet Century Park, Jakarta on the 31st August 2012.
With the objectives of (a) analyzing Parliamentaris aims at eradicating corruption through legislation; (b) assessing the current level of corruption and the practice/implementation of the anti-corruption laws; and (c) discussing ways at overcoming the gaps between the aims and practices of eradicating corruption in Indonesia. The discussion heard opening remarks from Minister MP Michael Glos (Member of Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Christian Social Union party) and presentations from Didi Irawadi Syamsuddin (Member of DPR RI Commission III), Danang Widoyoko (Coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch) and Sumarno (Senior Researcher, The Habibie Center).
In his opening remarks, Minister MP Michael Glos warned against the strong influence of special interest groups and called on politicians to they did not override the public’s interests. He suggested preventing politicians from holding activities outside of Parliament that may lead to potential conflict of interest was one way to prevent the pitfalls of corruption. Noting how rampant corruption still permeated every aspect of the state, Didi Irawadi Syamsuddin called for the use of extraordinary and unconventional approaches such as through the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). He suggested that there be more serious and concrete efforts made and called on the relevant law enforcement agencies to cooperate more and synergize with each other to intensify anti-corruption actions. He also called on judges to be firmer in imposing punishments to create an effective deterrent as well as reminding that the prevention of corruption in the first place, via bureaucratic reforms, was just as important in the fight against corruption.
Danang Widoyoko highlighted the dangers of money politics calling for better campaign finance regulation and reform of the electoral system to reduce the cost of politics. Sumarno also agreed suggesting that political corruption was not always motivated by personal reasons but because of the high costs involved in elections. He noted that although numerous election laws did touch on the subject of financial regulations, they were largely ineffective as evident by the increasing number of corruption cases involving politicians. He argued for greater transparency and accountability of political parties finance reports.
The discussion then proceeded to a question & answer session moderated by Dr. Zamroni Salim (The Habibie Center) where a number of interesting issues were raised. These included questions on how the Corruption Perception Index is measured, political parties’ lack of thoroughness in the recruitment process for political cadres/legislative candidates, and the need to bring back morality to rebuild trust/faith in the political system.
