Sexual bribes to be part of Indonesia's anti-corruption law

A proposal by a senior official of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for sexual bribery to be included in the anti-corruption law has received the backing of the country's Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD.

He said the proposal, however, needed to be further discussed so as to avoid legal complications which may arise from the law.

"Defining this act of a crime is difficult. The penalty for (sexual) misconduct is lenient. Meanwhile, an act of bribery requires the bribe to come in material form. So, where does that leave sexual favours? This needs to be discussed further," Mahfud was quoted as saying by the English daily, The Jakarta Globe, on Monday.

Saying that the practice had long taken place in Indonesia, Mahfud agreed that offering prostitutes or other sexual favours to public officials should qualify as a form of payoff, which in some cases he said could be greater than bribery using money.

The constitutional court chief said he had been getting reports that businesses and politicians had employed mistresses and prostitutes as lobbyists, convincing policy makers and public officials to back their agendas.

Last Tuesday, KPK deputy chairman Adnan Pandupraja had proposed that sexual bribery be included in the anti-graft law because, at the moment, nothing could be done to prohibit the practice, although the problem of sex for favours was known to exist.

"The laws measure bribery on a scale of rupiah. If we could convert sex-based bribery into a rupiah sum, that would be interesting, but unfortunately there are no such regulations on this issue," Adnan was reported as saying.