Please find below a news article that I have quoted from Kompas.
I hope that the Chief Justice's statement is sincere, not just some sort of lips service for whatever reason he may have.
Judge:
Minggu, 17 Oktober 2010 | 02:27 WIB
Indonesian laborers burn an effigy of a rat symbolizing corruption during a May Day rally outside the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Saturday May 1, 2010. Tens of thousands of workers thronged the streets of Asian cities Saturday in annual May Day marches, demanding job creation and minimum wage hikes. Writings on the effigy say "Corruptors Regime".
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Indonesia needs to follow China’s example and sentence officials convicted of corruption to death in order to stamp out massive graft in the country, a top judge said Saturday. Indonesia’s current sentences for corruption are too soft and do nothing to deter corrupt officials, said Mohammad Mahfud, the chief justice of the Constitutional Court.
Officials “are sentenced to only three to four year in jail, which is lighter than sentences given to petty criminals,” Mahfud said. He advocated the use of a provision in Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Law that allows judges to sentence convicts to death. It has never been used.
“In China, which carries out the death sentence for those convicted of corruption charges, there is a deterrent effect,” he said. “If death sentences were used in Indonesia for corruption, it would reduce the cases.”
China is trying to reduce the number of crimes that get the death penalty, but a legislator last month said China’s lawmakers have never considered dropping the death penalty for corruption. People convicted of corruption should be subject to harsh penalties, lawmaker Chen Sixi said in an online chat with citizens, according to the People’s Daily newspaper.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been widely credited for the success of an anti-corruption campaign that started after he took office in 2004. Scores of corrupt politicians, entrepreneurs and law enforcement officials have been tried and convicted, including the father-in-law of one of the Yudhoyono’s sons.
According to advocacy group Transparency International’s corruption index, Indonesia ranks 111th out of 180 countries.
Officials “are sentenced to only three to four year in jail, which is lighter than sentences given to petty criminals,” Mahfud said. He advocated the use of a provision in Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Law that allows judges to sentence convicts to death. It has never been used.
“In China, which carries out the death sentence for those convicted of corruption charges, there is a deterrent effect,” he said. “If death sentences were used in Indonesia for corruption, it would reduce the cases.”
China is trying to reduce the number of crimes that get the death penalty, but a legislator last month said China’s lawmakers have never considered dropping the death penalty for corruption. People convicted of corruption should be subject to harsh penalties, lawmaker Chen Sixi said in an online chat with citizens, according to the People’s Daily newspaper.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been widely credited for the success of an anti-corruption campaign that started after he took office in 2004. Scores of corrupt politicians, entrepreneurs and law enforcement officials have been tried and convicted, including the father-in-law of one of the Yudhoyono’s sons.
According to advocacy group Transparency International’s corruption index, Indonesia ranks 111th out of 180 countries.
22 comments:
assertiveness is what must be the start for the eradication of corruption ..
@ Harry...
The death penalty is not the answer. It is not a deterrent. If the death penalty was a deterrent, then why not apply it to all criminal offenses? Simply, if death penalty = deterrent this must surely equate to no crime, right?
Corruption does not need to be a capital offense. Indonesia needs to take the laws that it has and enforce them in the manner they were intended. Most people who partake in corrupt activities in Indonesia know that if they get caught the consequences will be the equivalent of a slap on the wrist.
This is in spite of the severity of the provisions that are available to courts to impose.
If you have not been able to tell, I am anti-death penalty. If you want to really and truly exact revenge on corrupt individuals then you jail them for extremely long periods of time and take away all the pleasures that they enjoyed as free people...
If you are going to be doing 20 years in the slammer where guards will not be corruptible and there will be no plasma tvs or after-hours visits from family or special "friends", and you will only get to see your family once a year or something similar, and you know that the courts will impose a sentence like that, then you might just think twice.
Death penalty, blah!
oh and Mahfud MD, blah blah blah juga
:)
Let's cut it short: I totally agree with Rob Baiton - do actually use the means there are to fight corruption in stead of pretending to do so.
And yes: I too am against death penalties - on principle and to rule out irreversible occasional "mistakes".
It is not easy to tell whether the capital punishment is the solution to the eradication of corruption. It will lower down the rate of corruption? Very likely, though it will not obviously extirpate corruption out of this country completely. And it seems that not any particular kind of punishment will completely and successfully eradicate any crimes.
There are no mathematical formulae for cases like this. If we think that the capital penalty will lower down the corruption rate, and that's our main objective it's worth the implementation. But if we think on the base that the death penalty itself is more evil than the corruption committed.. well... that's a clear conscience. Pick your call! :)
I think death penalty will decrease the corruptor
ah, very hard topic here. but im agree with death penalty for corruptor.
jaman SBY adalah jamannya blak blakan orang korupsi yang plaing kentara adalah di birokrasi pemerintahan....
Masuk jadi PNS kena duit apalagi kalau dah keterima sudah pasti mereka berpikir ngembaliin duit, begitu juga anggota Hewan yang terhina podo bae
SBY sendiri ga tegas jadinya ya jaman inilah kebobrokan bangsa terlihat jelas
@Information,
Yes eradication of corruption should be started from very strong will to do it.
@Rob,
I agree that death penalty does not guarantee that corruption will stop.
But the problem is that corruption is like a very acute illness, therefore there should be some sort of shock therapy to cure it.
We have been sending so many corrupt criminals for many decades
instead of decreasing their number increases.
Maybe because many of the prison officers are also corrupt, therefore the jail birds enjoyed life in jail.
So the key would be law enforcement
on every aspects of life.
@Colson,
I can understand why you and Rob are against death penalty. Because you live in societies where corruption (almost) don't exist.
But for countries where corruption exists in many aspects of life for so many decades, we need to keep on finding better ways to fight it.
And our anti corruption law give possibility to impose the strongest cure for that i.e. death penalty.
@Yari,
Corruption has been going on in almost every parts of life for so many decades. It's like a very deadly acute cancer that should be cured by very strong medication and treatment.
Although very strong treatment doesn't guarantee that
patient will survive, however efforts inevitably be made to save his/her life.
In corruption, especially those that cause very great financial losses, we should try every efforts incl. the most bitter one.
@Munir Ardi,
Experience shows that ordinary punishment cannot stop corruption so an extra-ordinary way should be chosen ie. death penalty for certain corruption.
@Reborn,
For corruption that caused very great financial losses yes.
@Omiyan,
Anda benar, penyebab merajalelanya korupsi adalah lemahnya pengawasan dan penegakkan hukum. Untuk itu dierlukan sikap tegas dari pimpinan negara.
^harry
that's what i mean. :)
i think death penalty is not the answer also to solve the corruption problem in our country,, if all their wealthy is taken out and they taught how if they're have nothing".. i think that's gonna be the best lesson in their life to feeling the same situation of the poor society"
Thanks Harry Nizam 4share
@Trik trik Blogger,
You are welcome.
@Reborn,
Okay
@Dee,
It would be good if the court decide like you said : confiscate all the treasures proven to be resulting from corruption.
Usually corrupt people would hide what they have taken from corruption, therefore making it impossible to trace.
biarpun terkesan ekstrim.. tapi aku pun setuju dengan hukuman mati buat koruptor... sekali2 kayanya itu bisa membuat efek jera untuk sang pelaku korupsi..... yg jadi pertanyaan bisakah hal itu diterapkan dengan benar, soalnya kadang aturan di Indonesia bisa berubah klo uang udah berbicara,,,,
nice post Sob.. sukses slalu
The death is not good way.
...but, the guidelines instruct courts to issue the death penalty only to those who commit "extremely serious" crimes, right..
komen rob mantep juga tuh..
@Ferdinand,
Untuk korupsi yang mengakibatkan kerugian sangat besar pada negara pelakunya perlu diberi hukuman sangat berat untuk efek jera.
@Boonchai,
It is not good, but sometimes we need to take very bitter medicine to cure illness.
@Genial,
Yes only to those who committed serious and extraordinary crimes.
@TUKANG CoLoNG,
Rob memang professional reporter, mantan redaktur HukumOnline dan pelatih mahasiswa hukum Indonesia pada international Legal Speech Contest. Sekarang tinggal di Sydney dengan isterinya seorang Indonesia.
October 20, 2010 10:28 PM
Delete
Anonymous TUKANG CoLoNG said...
komen rob mantep juga tuh..
October 20, 2010 10:56 PM
Delete
Corruption! It's the same thing here in the Philippines. There was also a death penalty bill being passed but never been approve.
Death Penalty is NOT a solution.
It's an evil thing.
I am sure there are always better solutions on that matter.
@Seltrollverse,
Your country the Philippines seems to have same problem with corruption.
Actually I alos don't agree with death penalty, except for crimes that caused great losses to people like corruption that inflicted very great financial losses; main distributors of illegal drugs.
@ Harry...
I think your post has shown the two divergent views on the value of the death penalty.
Funnily enough, the "shock therapy" argument is one I have heard before in many forms. It certainly might be a shock for anyone convicted of corruption and sentenced to death. But, generally, I still wonder whether it acts as a deterrent?
Maybe we need to look at some stats from China. They have corruption problems / issues there, and they sentence corruptors to death. I wonder does it work as a deterrent in China?
Hi Rob,
Many decades of efforts to fight corruption in Indonesia has shown very unsatisfying results.
People are very sick and tired of this failures, so it is obvious if we are thinking about using the ultimate "tools" provided by our law i.e. death penalty.
Re: China, they seemed to be more successful in fighting corruption after they executed death penalty on certain corrupt officials.
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