STRAITS Times, 9 December 2009
THOUSANDS of Indonesians rallied on Wednesday in several major cities to mark international anti-graft day, urging the government to seriously investigate a controversial bank bailout scandal.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is under mounting pressure as lawmakers probe allegations of corruption linked to a contentious US$700 million government bailout for the failed local institution Bank Century last year.
He has strongly denied accusations that some of the money was channeled into his campaign for re-election in July, which he won with 60 per cent of the vote on the back of a promise to stamp out corruption.
In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, up to 5,000 students and anti-graft activists flocked to a road in the city centre, calling on the government to probe the bank bailout.
Protesters carried banners and posters reading 'Investigate Bank Century case to save state money' and 'SBY is incapable of ruling this country", a reference to the president's nickname. In Jakarta, more than a thousand protesters marched to the state palace with banners urging the president to act, with one banner claiming '90 per cent of law enforcers here are rotten'.
Yudhoyono appealed late on Tuesday for people to demonstrate peacefully, saying his government was serious about tackling graft. He previously expressed his fears that unnamed forces could hijack the rally to topple him. Organisers of the anti-graft rally said the president was paranoid and called on him to join them rather than demonising a popular movement.
Source: STRAITS Times
THOUSANDS of Indonesians rallied on Wednesday in several major cities to mark international anti-graft day, urging the government to seriously investigate a controversial bank bailout scandal.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is under mounting pressure as lawmakers probe allegations of corruption linked to a contentious US$700 million government bailout for the failed local institution Bank Century last year.
He has strongly denied accusations that some of the money was channeled into his campaign for re-election in July, which he won with 60 per cent of the vote on the back of a promise to stamp out corruption.
In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, up to 5,000 students and anti-graft activists flocked to a road in the city centre, calling on the government to probe the bank bailout.
Protesters carried banners and posters reading 'Investigate Bank Century case to save state money' and 'SBY is incapable of ruling this country", a reference to the president's nickname. In Jakarta, more than a thousand protesters marched to the state palace with banners urging the president to act, with one banner claiming '90 per cent of law enforcers here are rotten'.
Yudhoyono appealed late on Tuesday for people to demonstrate peacefully, saying his government was serious about tackling graft. He previously expressed his fears that unnamed forces could hijack the rally to topple him. Organisers of the anti-graft rally said the president was paranoid and called on him to join them rather than demonising a popular movement.
Source: STRAITS Times
