TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The shooting of Mathur Husairi, 43, is not an ordinary crime. This director of the Center for Islam and Democracy Studies (CIDE) was a serious anti-corruption activist in Bangkalan, Madura. An unidentified assailant shot him after he attended a meeting with community leaders. Mathur did not die. After ensuring he was injured, the attacker warned: "Don't push us!"

Clearly, the message was not for Mathur alone, but for all the anti-corruption community. At Bangkalan, besides CIDE, are Lira (People's Information Center) and Bangkalan Corruption Watch (BCW). Their focus had been on certain local officials, including the suspected corrupt activities of Bangkalan's strongman, Fuad Amin Imron.

Fuad, a two-term regent who later served as legislator at the Bangkalan Provincial House of Representatives, in December last year was the subject of investigation by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). He was caught accepting bribes in exchange for providing Pertamina oil and gas contracts to Media Karya Sentosa, a dubious company with which he often collaborates. But long before that, CIDE along with Lira and BCW, reported Fuad's suspected corruption activities. Even after Fuad was arrested, Mathur did not stop. Last January, he led a protest against illegal fees charged by the Bangkalan Education Office. He also made an issue over the suspicious appointment of civil servants at the Regional Employees Agency.

Mathur was not the first terror victim. Ibnu Khotib, a colleague at CIDE had also been attacked with a knife by an unknown assailant. Then Fahrillah, a Lira activist, underwent a similar experience. The masterminds probably had hoped that Bangkalan would become a 'safe zone' for their terror activities.

Since 2010, more than 10 anti-corruption activists have experienced such intimidations, eight of them after they were attacked with a knife. It is indeed strange that those obvious acts of terror cannot be solved by the police not one. Only the case of Musleh, a Madura Corruption Watch activist, could be solved by the police. But only because the attacker gave himself up.

The police should not take these cases lightly. Their lax attitude could lead people to think that the police is paid to 'look the other way'. Such suspicion is certainly not excessive given the same pattern of the attacks. First, a politician or strongman is suspected of corruption, followed by terror acts against certain people, and concluded by the police's claims of inability to prosecute due to lack of evidence.

The same pattern happened in Jakarta. Five years ago, Tama S. Langkun, an Indonesia Corruption Watch activist was busy trying to expose the fat bank accounts of police generals when he was beaten up in the middle of the street. Tama was badly hurt, but so far the police have yet to find the perpetrator. Long before that, in 1996 Fuad Muhammad Syaffrudin or Udin, a reporter of the daily Bernas newspaper in Yogyakarta was killed while investigating corruption in the Bantul regency office. Udin's killer and the masterminds have never been found, even after the statute of limitations.

Catching the attackers and the masterminds is the responsibility of the police. The police cannot pretend to be unable to solve the case. It was so open it should have been easy to nab them.

The failure of the police to protect anti-corruption activists will undoubtedly make such systematic killings difficult to eliminate. However, activists who fight corruption must be protected. The police cannot stay quiet, otherwise the public will think they are part of the people the activists are fighting against. (*)