The Jakarta Globe

Indonesia's KPK Scandal Catches Attention of Foreign Media

Media experts on Monday said the international coverage of the conflict involving the nation’s antigraft and law enforcement agencies showed that the rest of the world saw the issue as a major stumbling block for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s new administration.

Deddy Mulyana, a mass communications expert from Bandung’s Padjadjaran University, said on Monday that the foreign media’s reports on the battle between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office portrayed it as a potential crisis for the government.

“This issue has caught their attention, as they see it has the potential to grow into a bigger issue that may trouble the government,” he said.

In a report on Thursday, the London-based The Economist newsmagazine said the conflict was the first crisis to confront Yudhoyono, who usually received positive coverage in the foreign media.

Other respected foreign media organizations, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BBC and Al Jazeera have also published reports on the scandal. They, too, suggested that the president was facing a significant challenge as he began his second term in office.

Deddy said Indonesia had received positive coverage for months after managing to emerge from the global crisis relatively unscathed, due partly to the belief that the government had been doing its best to fight corruption.

“The president must be able to ensure that the conflict will not grow any bigger as it will certainly reduce foreign investors’ trust in the country,” he said.

Dedy Nur Hidayat, a political communications expert from the University of Indonesia, agreed, saying the president needed to act to contain the conflict.

“This is certainly a challenge for him. The president needs to be decisive in ending this conflict,” he said.

“Media, including the foreign media, would not be pleased with just mere statements.”

Yudhoyono’s name has been dragged into the ongoing feud involving the three institutions, which many critics have said is a concerted effort to weaken the antigraft commission. Yudhoyono was mentioned several times in wiretapped conversations linked to the case surrounding KPK deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah.

Played last week at the Constitutional Court, the recordings implicated former National Police Chief Detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji and former Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga in an alleged plot to frame Bibit and Chandra for bribery.

Massive public demonstrations in support of the KPK forced the president to establish a fact-finding team to investigate the case.

Meanwhile, Susno and Ritonga announced their resignations last week.

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