President Asks Law Enforcers To Accept Public Criticism

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked law enforcers to accept all criticism, anger and dissatisfaction addressed to them so far over corruption eradication efforts so far.

In his speech at the opening of a dialog with anti-corruption activists from non-governmental organizations at the state palace here on Wednesday President Yudhoyono said law enforcers even must be able to accept them for motivation for improving performance.

"I accept all the criticisms or I could understand their anger or their disappointment and I hope others or law enforcers could also accept them as motivation for us all to do better in the years to come," he said.

President Yudhoyono assured that he remained actively leading corruption eradication efforts in the country within a corridor of the authority vested on him.

He said by leading corruption eradication efforts it does not mean that a president could take over the tasks and authority of the prosecution, the police and the court because judicial process could not be interfered even by head of state or government.

President Yudhoyono on the occasion expressed his commitment to continue collaborating in the corruption eradication efforts with non-governmental organizations and also community members who have growing spirit to fight corruption crimes that have caused a financial loss on the state.

In view of that he hoped dialog with anti-corruption activists could be done routinely to build unity in the fight against corruption without it being suspected as a "conspiracy" between the government and non-government organizations.

Before around 50 NGO activists the President admitted that corruption had even spread wider at regional levels in the reform era because more decision-making authority has been moved to regional levels.

But at the same time the number of corruption cases that had been settled had also increased from year to year, he said.(T007)