Jakarta-wapresri.go.id. Fighting against corruption should not lead to great fear for policy or decision makers to take action.
“The purpose of the state is to achieve justice and prosperity. The efforts to eradicate corruption must accelerate the development, and not slow it down, so that we can better public welfare,” said Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the launch of the book entitled “Sisi Lain Akuntabilitas KPK dan Lembaga Pegiat Antikorupsi: Fakta dan Analisis” (The Other Side of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Other Anti-Corruption Boards: Facts and Analysis), at Borobudur Hotel, Jakarta on Thursday (May, 12).
The Vice President also noted, corruption issues seem greater now, despite prevailing laws with harsher sanctions than ever before.
According to the Vice President, there are at least four reasons why this happens.
First, the value of the budget which rose 100% every five years makes the potential for corruption also bigger.
Second, the widening corruption law has also led to more and more people are trapped into corruption.
“Formerly, what is called corruption is that any effort that generates the state loss and enrich oneself. However, it is now different. Generating or potentially generating the state loss is also deemed as corruption. What has not happened yet can be considered corruption,” he said.
Third reason is the widening authority.
“With the expanding autonomy and democracy, there would be more parties potentially commit corruption,” said the Vice President.
The fourth reason is the media coverage.
“The rise in media coverage of corruption can also give the impression of corruption is increasing,” he said.
The Vice President then restated about the fear of local officials in making decisions as they do not want to fall into the act of corruption.
“There are some officials who have good intentions but manage wrongly eventually go to prison as they are deemed guilty of corruption,” said the Vice President.
For that reason, he hoped, there should be evaluation so that the law could be enforced proportionally.
“Emotional laws need to be reevaluated as principally a law should bring about justice,” said the Vice President. By doing so, he continued, both of corruption eradication and development acceleration could run side by side.
Previously, Director of the Independent Institute of Public Policy Welfare-Unity-Justice Romli Atmasasmita explained that the launch of the book is an effort to disseminate information to public about the need for awareness of the elements of objectivity and common sense in the national spirit of corruption eradication in Indonesia.
The book launch event was also attended by Minister of Planning/Head of Bappenas Sofyan Djalil, the Chief Justice Muhammad Hatta Ali, and KPK Chairman Agus Rahardjo.
