"The inclusion of the maximum penalty indeed would make it difficult for Indonesia to recoup stolen wealth kept abroad. It is because of this penalty that European countries would not cooperate with Indonesia (to collect it)," he said at Muhammadiyah University in Malang here on Saturday.
He said however that the government would still retain the death penalty in the anti-corruption bill which will be submitted to the House of Representatives in the next one or two months for further discussion so that it could be immediately passed into law.
He said the government called on all parties including academicians to contribute with better ideas and views for the improvement of the bill.
He said the government would also cooperate with provincial governors, district heads and city mayors from across the country to improve the people`s legal awareness.
He said Indonesia is currently facing four big problems that need to be settled thoroughly with regard to building civil society.
The four problems are corruption, terrorism, narcotics and its distribution and poverty and ignorance.
Corruption eradication efforts have not been maximal but the government would continue to conduct improvement. Regarding terrorism he said that the people still continued being disturbed with bomb threats.
Regarding narcotics the minister said that people have been made restless because of the widespread of narcotics distribution. He said the prisons and detention houses have now even been dominated by people linked with narotics cases. He said 50,000 out of 135,000 people in prisons and detention centers are there because of narcotic cases.
"When will we be able to create a civil society if until now we are still spooked by various big problems including poverty and ignorance," he said. (*)
(H-YH/HAJM/a014)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
