Sabirin arrested, who's next?
As Syahril Sabirin went to jail on Wednesday last week, protests immediately sprung up from all corners. But most loudly from those groups whose political interests conflict with President Abdurrahman Wahid's.
Perhaps this is just democracy at work. Whatever decision is taken by the government certainly will be criticised by those whom, officially or unofficially, are in opposition to it.
But what attitude will the public take?
The late Adam Malik had the same advice to the Indonesian people every time he faced a complicated problem. And we are talking here about an expert politician who become chairman of the top assembly or MPR, vice-president and even chairman of the United Nations Security Council. "The heart may be hot, but the head has to stay cold," Malik repeatedly said.
That's the way it is. We may feel angry because we feel Attorney General Marzuki Darusman's decision is too harsh or we may feel the opposite, that it is excessively soft. But either way, what is more important is to reflect on whether the government's action is in accordance with current law or could be in breach of it. Like it or not, legal certainty is a more crucial issue than feelings of pity for one's fellow human beings.
The problem is that efforts to uphold the law do not always sit well with pity. Maybe that is the reason the ancient Greeks drew Themis, the god of justice, as a woman who kept her eyelids always open with the scales of justice in her left hand and an unsheathed sword in her right. As cruel as a sadistic killer may be, in the eyes of his wife and child he may still be a kind, loving husband and father.
Sabirin of course is no sadistic killer. His politeness and devout loyalty are obvious not only to his wife and family, but to almost every person who has ever had contact with the Bank Indonesia governor. Because of that, naturally the decision to arrest him will be seen as excessive by some people. Especially bearing in mind how many other figures implicated in the Bank Bali case are still walking free although their daily behavior feels and stinks of corruption.
The charge that this arrest is politically motivated is one many people will easily accept. Especially so after President Abdurrahman Wahid's offer to free Sabirin from the legal process against him - if he was ready to resign from his post as central bank governor - became public knowledge. Then there is Sabirin's statement that he was given the choice of becoming an ambassador or a member of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA) if he was ready to follow Wahid's suggestion.
All of this suggests a foul-tasting political conspiracy. What else? It is really difficult for an honest mind to accept that the government, so convinced about the breaches of the law that Sabirin has allegedly committed, in fact offered to stop the legal process against him and give him a respected position, if only he was prepared to resign from his post as governor of Bank Indonesia.
The behaviour of Wahid's government shows that the bad habits of Soeharto's New Order regime are not dead. The post of ambassador, whose task is to represent the interests and national image of Indonesia in the country to which he or she is assigned, should be given to sons and daughters of the country who are best qualified to do it and not become the place to dump ex-officials who are no longer needed.
Even more so for membership of the Supreme Advisory Council. It should only be given to those who can become a model for the country, who have been without fault in their time of active duty to the state. If the DPA, which under the constitution is tasked with giving advice to the president, is filled by people who are accused of breaking the law and misusing their authority while state officials, isn't this going to become just another unfunny Gus Dur joke?
There is a group in the palace which argues that the offer had two points in its favour. Firstly, it would stop the political rows and aid the stability of the rupiah. Secondly, it would help efforts to clean Bank Indonesia from allegations of corruption. The ever polite Sabirin was seen as a weak point in the reform of an institution which has to take responsibility for the ruin of the national banking sector. The governor's legendary patience showed his lack of firmness in punishing - or even firing when necessary -- BI officials who were corrupt or careless in their work, to the point where liquidity credits flowing from BI to the bank sector reached the level of Rp164 trillion.
Perhaps the government should have made a different offer. Perhaps Sabirin should have been given the choice of pushing a new clean-up of Bank Indonesia in conjuction with legal experts. The reward could have been that the attorney general would use his prerogative to freeze cases to put a hold on investigations of Sabirin's alleged wrongdoings. The alternative would have been to make him the main focus of investigations, since he is said to have been the main barrier in the effort to free the central bank from those implicated in the great sins of the past.
Now it's too late. Darusman was left with no other choice than to order Sabirin's arrest. Whoever is right, the Bank Indonesia governor's opposition to the government clearly implies there is a conflict of interests. This could easily obstruct the legal system's efforts to get to the bottom of cases in which Bank Indonesia is implicated.
If it really wants to prove that politics is not the driving force behind the investigation of Sabirin, the government must be prepared to arrest more people over various corruption cases, above all those linked to the Bank Bali affair.
The Indonesian people toppled the New Order regime because it was seen as steeped in the country's infamous KKN -- corruption, collusion and nepotism. The so-called Reform Order has established itself and two years has gone by since Soeharto's 'abdication'. And so why is just one government official under arrest? (CM)