Indonesia website takes aim at corrupt officials

JAKARTA: An Indonesian website listing crooked  officials and individuals has joined the war against graft in one of Asia's most corrupt nations, its founders said Tuesday.

Korupedia.org, which so far lists 108 graft convicts, has received nearly 2 million Internet hits in the week since it was launched, some from hackers trying to bring it down, they said.

The website is similar to IPaidABribe.com, an Indian site launched in Bangalore two years ago.

"Since the official launch last Tuesday we recorded around 1.9 million visits from across Indonesia, most of them from Jakarta," said Suwandi Ahmad, the website's developer.

"We have also had cyberattacks nearly daily. I'm pretty sure it's by people trying to ruin our database," said Danang Widoyoko, one of the founders and also head of the independent Indonesian Corruption Watch.

"A corruption case reported in a newspaper only impacts for one day, but the data on our website will last forever. If you want to find some information about the family of your future spouse check our site," he said.

Korupedia.org lists names, photographs and details of convictions, such as amounts embezzled and sentences received.

"The website at least metes out social punishment, which will hopefully act as a deterrent and help end the culture of corruption in this country," Widoyoko added.

A Gallup poll released in October last year found that 91 percent of Indonesians believe corruption in government is widespread, compared to 84 percent in 2006.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won two elections on promises to tackle graft in one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, but critics say he has failed to make any genuine difference to the culture of graft and impunity.

Transparency International, the anti-global graft body, ranked Indonesia 100 in a list of 183 nations in its Corruption Perception Index last year, making it more corrupt than India.