CAN CORRUPTORS BE BROUGHT BACK TO INDONESIA?

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, April 29 (ANTARA) - The signing on Saturday of an extradition treaty between Indonesia and Singapore gives new hope to Jakarta to bring back fugitive corruptors and retrieve the ill-gotten money they have deposited in the neighboring country.

        When it was signed in Bali, however, the extradition deal received mixed reactions at home - optimism and pessimism -- on its effectiveness to bring back the money of the state stashed away somethere in Singapore.

        The conclusion of the extradition agreement itself was described as a breakthrough of President Susilo Bambang Yudhonono. Indonesia had tried to conclude an extradition treaty with Singapore for over three decades.

        At least the Yudhoyono government was viewed as successful in convincing Singapore of its seriousness to crack down on corruption and money laundering.

        "The agreement constitutes a form of breakthrough by President Yudhoyono in combating corruption and money laundering," lawyers Suhadi and Syamsul Dalal in Lampung province said.

        Calls for an imminent implementation of the agreement were therefore made by many quarters, among others,the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the House of Representatives (DPR).

        MPR chairman Hidayat Nurwahid urged the DPR to ratify immediately the extradition treaty. "Although it is a little bit late, I highly welcome the agreement because it will help the authorities settle the problem of corrupted Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) funds stashed away in Singapore," he said.

        Hope for the use of the extradition treaty momentum to arrest fugitive corruptors was also raised by DPR Chairman Agung Laksono.

        "Members of the Indonesian parliament, political parties and non-governmental organizations all hoped that the extradition treaty would be a great help in arresting Indonesian corruptors who had fled to Singapore," he said.

        An expression of optimism also came from Vice President Jusuf Kalla. He said that the extradition treaty would serve as an effective means to force fugitive corruptors to return to Indonesia.

        "As long as the treaty is based on cooperation, I am optimistic that it will be an effective means to force corrupters who had fled from Indonesia to return," he said.

        Kalla said Indonesia wanted to recover the money which was illegally stashed away in Singapore. "That is why, I am optimistic that if the agreement is implemented well, it will be effective," the vice president said.

        If implemented well, the extradition will benefit not only Indonesia but Singapore as well.

        "Indonesia and Singapore will both benefit from the extradition treaty," political scientist Beginda Pakpahan of the University of Indonesia (UI) said.

        The extradition pact would improve Singapore's credibility because by the agreement it would look cleaner and more credible in the eyes of the law and to the international community he said.

        Singapore's reputation will rise when it is prepared to cooperate with Indonesia in taking action against transnational criminals in Southeast Asia, he added.

        Singapore is an alleged money laundering center for corrupt businesspeople. According to a report by Tempo magazine last October, for a long time Singapore had been a refuge for 'problem' business people from Indonesia.

        It quoted data from the Indonesian embassy in Singapore that some 200 debtors who owned money to the state were hiding in this tiny nation since the fall of the Soeharto administration in 1998.

        Included among them are Sukanto Tanoto, Sjamsul Nursalim, Liem Sioe Liong, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Bambang Sutrisno, Agus Anwar, Lidia Muchtar and Pauline Maria Lumowa.

        According to Tempo, the number of rich people in Singapore in 2005 grew by 13.4 percent to 55,000, with a total wealth of around US$260 billion.

        About one-third, or 18,000, of them are Indonesian citizens. According to Tempo, quoting Marrill Lynch, their total wealth amounts to US$87 billion.

        But Indonesia has not yet ascertained how much ill-gotten money it could retrieve from Singapore. Asked how much of the stolen money could be retrieved by virtue of the extradition treaty, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said this was still being calculated.

        "What can be recovered are funds deposited in Singapore by those who were convicted by Indonesian courts while the amount of funds hidden by fugitives yet to be convicted is still being calculated," he said.

        While the vice president is optimistic about the extradition treaty, some observers expressed pessimism. Singapore is basically reluctant to have such a treaty that forced Indonesia to wait for about 33 years before they could reach agreement to sign it.

        "We have been patiently waiting for 33 years since 1974 before Singapore is prepared to sign the extradition treaty with Indonesia," Secretary of the Golkar Party Faction of the MPR, Hajriyanto Y Thohari said.

        In the meantime, political observer Bantarto Bandoro of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said differences between the legal processes in Indonesia and Singapore may hamper the implementation of the extradition treaty.

        In Singapore, someone suspected of a crime in another country, can be extradited only by a court order while in Indonesia it can be done by a government official's decision, he said.

        "And this will have implications in the system as deciding the perpetrator of a crime is subjective in nature. A perpetrator can be classified as violating the law here but over there, he or she may just be viewed as not guilty," Bandoro said.

        Pessimism on bringing back corruptors to Indonesia was also voiced by Attorney General Abdurrahman Saleh. He admitted that the problem was not as easy as it sounds. "It is not impossible that they have already left Singapore when we were still negotiating the agreement," he said. (A014/A/HNG/B/O001)