Gecko challenging a crocodile

Sunday, July 26, 2009


NYT posted a story on the recent polemic between the gecko and the crocodile:

“Now our relations are no good because the K.P.K. started picking on their high officials,” said Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, a former deputy chairman at the commission. “We suspect each other.” More recently, an active high-ranking police official, Susno Duadji, was wiretapped by the commission and caught asking for a $1 million bribe. In an interview with Tempo, the country’s most respected magazine, the police official said he knew he was being wiretapped and played along with the caller; in an allusion to the anticorruption commission and the police, he said, “It’s like a gecko challenging a crocodile.”

Civil societies recently campaigned in support of the 'Gecko'. They called their movement CICAK or Cinta Indonesia Cinta KPK (Love Indonesia, Love the Commission for Eradication of Corruption). Cicak is the Indonesian word for Gecko. As a symbol, they release the above emblem titled: "I am a gecko. I am bold to challenge a crocodile"