OPINION: Anticorruption and prejudice trap
The Jakarta Post, 17 December 2009 Co-authored with Gatot Goei (Gatot Goei is an advocate and a former member of the Jakarta Legal Aid Body) Tucked in between the multi-front and high-spirited antigraft movement is a tiny flare of unwavering prejudice. As the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) saga unfolded with the detention of Bibit S. Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, and later exploded with the airing of the conversations wiretapped by the KPK, high-profile cases involving figures like Anggoro, Anggodo and Yuliana Ong became catalysts for the emergence of age-old sentiments, the framing of Chinese Indonesians as the usual corrupt suspects. The tapes and subsequent debates have depicted how “well-connected” Anggodo is to the legal system. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s laggard response to the whole saga and the National Police and District Attorney’s obvious anti-KPK crusade firmly and appropriately probed Anggodo’s six reported cases, but has also added to the prejud