Indonesia president to act on corruption scandal

Within minutes from now, President SBY will announce his decision on the controversial KPK (anti-graft body) vs Police known as Cicak vs Buaya (Lizard vs Crocodile).

Some foreign media take interests to this situation. This is what BBC has to say:

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is due to announce what action he will take on a high-level corruption scandal.

He has already warned Indonesian media it will be “controversial”.

The scandal has pitted the country’s anti-corruption agency against senior law enforcement officials.

An independent inquiry said the police case against two anti-corruption officials accused of extortion and abuse of power should be dropped.

The case caused public outrage when it emerged they could have been framed.

The two men – Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah – have been released, but the police and the attorney general’s office have so far refused to drop their case.

Public sympathy has been growing for the anti-corruption agency – known by its acronym KPK – with almost daily protests on the streets of Jakarta urging the president to act decisively.

Bloomberg meanwhile has a good title on this case, especially on President Sby position thus:
Indonesia’s Yudhoyono Hits ‘Tipping Point’ in Graft Case Row

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tonight will say how he plans to end a dispute between police and the anti-corruption agency that has caused a public outcry and threatens to undermine his record on combating graft.

“We’re at a tipping point right now,” said James van Zorge, principal at Jakarta-based risk consultancy Van Zorge, Heffernan & Associates. If Yudhoyono “does the wrong thing, you’ll see a lot of criticism and you’ll see how this will impact the international opinion about the president and this country as a place to do business,” he said.

Legal certainty in Indonesia is “the number one” issue that will go under scrutiny, Van Zorge said.

Tags: Indonesia, kpk, polri

This entry was posted on November 23, 2009 at November 23, 2009 and is filed under Asides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

akhlis
November 23, 2009 at 2:49 pm

SBY should thank God. He’s lucky enough since there’s no impeachment in Indonesian history.He proved himself to be much too slow in cleaning up the ‘mess’…so disappointing.