Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is apparently coming down on the side of the
country's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in its budget stand-off with
House of Representatives’ lawmakers on a new headquarters.
"What is well-planned in the state budget should be
implemented. If there's no extraordinary reason, let's implement the
programmes," Yudhoyono said yesterday on the sidelines of his visit to a
horse farm in Moubukol, East Sumba.
"I hear lawmakers put an asterisk on the budget. The
House should not delay it. Otherwise people will not be able to enjoy the
benefits," referring to the holds lawmakers can place on deliberations.
One specific asterisk has been in recent news: the one
placed on the KPK’s request for 225.71 billion rupiah (US$24.15 million) for a
new headquarters by lawmakers on House's Commission III overseeing legal
affairs.
Commission III lawmakers have suggested that the KPK ask
the government to find a building for it to rent to avoid spending money on an
expensive new building.
Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo, however, said that
such a request would go on the back burner. "We have a few vacant [rental]
properties, but the demand is high. Many state agencies, including ministries,
don’t have headquarters. We must give priority to them," Martowardojo said
on the sidelines of a meeting at the House yesterday.
Martowardojo previously said that the House had refused
to endorse the disbursement of 200 billion rupiah ($24.1 million) that the
ministry allocated for the office from the state budget.
A leader of House's Commission III said yesterday that
there had been no moves to remove the asterisk.
Commission III deputy chairman Aziz Syamsuddin said none
of the nine political parties represented on the commission had submitted
official statements that they would back the proposal.
Several Commission III lawmakers, however, said that
lawmakers from their parties would now vote for the new building.
"The People’s Conscience Party [Hanura] has recently
submitted an official statement advising of our change of decision on the
matter. Our party has agreed to remove the asterisk on the KPK’s budget
proposal, and thus supports the construction of a new office building,"
Hanura lawmaker Syarifuddin Sudding told reporters on the sidelines of a House
plenary meeting on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party lawmaker I Gede Pasek
Suardika said that his peers in the party had also agreed to lift the asterisk,
in principal.
"We have terms and conditions, but we agree the
construction plan," Suardika, the chairman of Commission III, said.
A plenary session of the committee would be convened for
a final decision on the project, he added.
The KPK said that its current headquarters in a
31-year-old leased building in Kuningan, South Jakarta, was designed to host
350 people – less than half of the commission’s 752 employees.
The commission has also arrested, prosecuted and
imprisoned dozens of lawmakers from several parties in a vote-buying scandal at
the Bank Indonesia, country' s central bank, among several other cases.
The House’s refusal to back the proposal, first submitted
in 2008, has recently spawned a public campaign to pay for the new building
that has raised about 100 million rupiah ($10,700).
Some people have donated with a passion that has overcome
the size of their contributions.
"A woman from a less fortunate background has been
coming to our booth at the KPK building and donating 1,100 rupiah. She has been
doing it for the last three days," Ilian Deta Artasari from watchdog the
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said yesterday.
The amount is about 10 US cents.
"Every time she’s here, she tells us repeatedly that
her sole reason is to support the KPK in fighting graft," Artasari said.
The woman said that she wanted to remain anonymous,
Artasari added. "She just asks me to remember her as a person who doesn't
want to see her rich country getting down with corruption."
Margareth S. Aritonang and
Dicky Christanto
The Jakarta Post
The Jakarta Post
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