Publication of corruption report to be delayed until next year
29 September 4914Temania's right-wing government announced today that the keenly awaited release of a report into corruption would be delayed until next year at the earliest. The decision to postpone the release of the report has already caused controversy with protests breaking out in several large cities this afternoon. Initially commissioned three years ago, the report investigated allegations of institutional corruption within the Temanian political system.
Despite being concluded almost nine months ago, the government has postponed the report's release already citing "security concerns". In recent months, there has been an increasing tide of public anger at pervasive corruption at all levels of the Temanian government. Both the Temanian public and international observers have already acknowledged that the report's continued delay is likely an indication that it implicates members of the current government, while the opposition parties' lack of emphasis on the report as a political issue suggests it may go even further.
Despite it being widely believed that Temanian officials have engaged in criminal actions it is unlikely that any major political figures will be charged due to expansive immunity provisions for legislators in the country. In anticipation of the next general election in 4916, a new political party has already been registered seeking to stand on an explicitly anti-corruption platform. The new party is known as "Tangan Yang Bersih", which literally translates as "clean hands", and draws inspiration from the election of
hardline anti-corruption candidate Charlie Nibogora in Kurageri last year.
Following in the footsteps of Nibogora, the party's new leader Purwodarminto has pledged to apply the death penalty to all those implicated in corruption. At the party's launch event in the capital he told a small crowd of supporters, "the one thing that unites all Temanian people is that we are all victims of a corrupt government". After the news of the report's delay this morning, Purwodarminto was quick to talk to the press again. In one interview, he said that his first action as Prime Minister would be "the immediate arrest of every senior NUP and PoS official".
Suara Temania (Temanian Voice) is an independent news outlet in Temania reporting on a variety of subjects including politics, business, sport and culture.