Corruption in Kinabalu

During the trial at the Corruption Court in Jakarta last Wednesday, the Prosecutor demanded that former Indonesian Diplomats in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, be sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment, and Fine each of them Rp. 150 million or six months imprisonment for alleged embezzlement of Immigration fees.

According to Kompas, the Defendants i.e former Consul General (2000-2003) Muchamad Sukarna, former Head of Economic-Social-Culture Section Mas Tata, former Head of Imigration in Kuching Irsyafii Rasoel, and former Head of Immigration in Tawau Makdum Tahir, were charged with violation of the Corruption Eradication Law No.20 Year 2001 Article 3 in connection with Article 18.
Beside the above mentioned punishment, each of them must also pay compensation : M. Sukarna Rp 414 million, M. Tata Rp 179.6 million, I. Rasoel Rp. 300 million and M. Tahir Rp 500 million.
Prosecutor Suwarji accused the Defendants of conspiring to abused their authority by charging two different types of Imigration fees, i.e. an Actual fee and a lower Official fee reported to the state. The difference were then split among themselves, inflicting a loss to the state totalling Rp 6,97 Billion.

On 14 October 2008, PR Officer of the Commision for the Eradication of Corruption (KPK) i.e Johan Budi has informed that some of the Defendants have returned to KPK Rp 3,5 Billion, including Rp 2,5 Billion returned by M. Sukarna on 17 September 2008.

Actually the double Immigration fees were initiated by the previous Consul General (1999-2000) i.e. Amir Hamzah based on his Decision No. SKEP/05/N 7/0899 dated 30 August 1999.
Abd according to Tempointeraktif, on 23 March the Prosecutor has demanded the same Court to sentence Amir Hamzah and three of his staffs two and a half year imprisonment plus fine each of them with Rp 150 million or 6 months imprisonment.

The above shows that our law enforcement agencies are very serious in their efforts to eradicate corruption in our country. I hope that they would also pay attention to other cases that have inflicted a lot much bigger loss to the state but pending for very long like the Central Bank Liquid Aid (BLBI) Cases, and the mysterious Lapindo Mud Flow case.