Police, socialites, top politicians no longer sacrosanct
Indonesia’s Corruption
Eradication Commission, which has in the past been accused of tenaciously
nailing lesser figures but leaving the big players alone, has shown a new
aggressiveness in recent weeks, taking on the National Police and one of the
country’s most prominent socialites.
The commission, known by its
Indonesian language acronym KPK, has detained the former traffic police chief
turned graft suspect, Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, in what optimists say could
signal the beginning of a cleanup of the force. It also some time ago netted
Siti Hartati Murdaya Poo, the wife of one of the country’s richest ethnic
Chinese industrialists, Murdaya Poo, who is ranked by Forbes as the 19th
richest person in the country. Siti Hartati is a businesswoman in her own right
and is also the chairwoman of the Indonesian Buddhist Association.
Siti Hartati also played a major
role in funding the first presidential race of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono in 2004, and her prosecution is one sign of Yudhoyono’s fading fortunes
as the end of his second and final term approaches in 2014.
In the last year, the president
has also found a number of his closest political allies under investigation for
involvement in the financing of a scandal-ridden athletes’ village for the 2011
Southeast Asian Games. Former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin,
who has been jailed on bribery charges, on Tuesday submitted documents to the
KPK that allegedly prove that party chairman Anas Urbaningrum and secretary
general Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono – the president’s youngest son were aware of
the flow of corruption-tainted funds.
The move marks the first time
that the president’s son has been publicly tied to the many corruption scandals
dogging the ruling party.
Having the KPK go after hitherto
untouchable police generals and tycoons is uncharted territory for Indonesia
and is a major test of the body’s staying power. With Edhie Baskoro’s name now
in the mix, it is hard to say where this might lead.
The KPK has compiled an
astonishing 100 percent conviction rate since the organization’s establishment
in 2002, pulling down cases of bribery and graft involving government
procurement, budgets and other murky business inside the opaque Indonesian
bureaucracy. Lawmakers, judges, government officials and a handful of lower
level businessmen have been jailed, and perhaps 20,000 cases have been reported
to the agency, which is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the job.
Gong after the police is a big
step forward. The National Police are considered one of Indonesia’s most
corrupt institutions, and one that so far has been largely unassailable. In
mid-2010, two KPK officials were arrested and charged with abuse of office
after they tapped the telephones of Susno Duadji, then the National Police Chief
of Detectives, for allegedly conspiring to quash a bribery investigation into
the activities of a fugitive businessman.
Ultimately, the two KPK
investigators were ordered freed after widespread public protest. In the wake
of that squabble, the KPK has largely left the police alone.
However, on Monday they detained
Djoko after an eight-hour interrogation over his alleged receipt of a Rp2
billion (US$208,000) kickback to award a Rp198 billion contract for driving
simulators to an unqualified company. The KPK has named three other suspects in
the case, including former traffic unit deputy director Brig. Gen. Didik
Purnomo, Inovasi Teknologi Indonesia president Sukotjo Bambang and Citra
Mandiri Metalindo Abadi president director Budi Susanto. The latter two are
from the project’s winning contractors, while none of the three are currently
in custody.
“This is the first time the KPK
has taken on the cops and they seem to be turning the tide,” said a long-time
western political observer in Jakarta. "With popular disappointment rising
against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and traditional politics generally,
the KPK looks stronger.”
Analysts in Jakarta say the Djoko
mess could finally lead to some progress against what is probably the most
corrupt agency in the country. If the KPK can gain more traction against big
wigs, the political elite in the country could grow more nervous.
The case of Siti Hartati is
equally significant. She is the highest elite business person ever dragged into
the KPK. Her case has caused serious concern among Chinese tycoon families,
many of whom have amassed their fortunes through being close to government
officials in an environment in which payoffs to various officials are common.
She has been accused of bribing
an official in the central Sulawesi district of Buol in an effort to obtain
concessions for a palm oil company. She was previously thought to be under
Yudhoyono’s protection due to her role in his election campaign.
She was also a member of the
Democratic Party’s advisory board and a member of the highly influential
National Economic Commission, a presidential advisory board of wealthy tycoons.
She was named the sixth most influential woman in Indonesia in a Globe Asia
magazine poll and is a former lawmaker who was instrumental in passing an
anti-racial discrimination law.
Siti Hartati has denied the
charges and resigned from her various posts. Her husband, who started out
selling newspapers, now has interests in IT, timber, consumer goods and
engineering. He is the majority owner of Jakarta's biggest convention center,
the site of more than 100 events a year. She faces up to five years in prison.
“People are really sick of the
sleaze,” said a political observer. “I think the KPK may be getting too strong
and popular to be stopped. The ultimate beneficiary could be a potential
presidential reform candidate in 2014.”
So far, no such candidate has
emerged although retired Gen. Prabowo Subianto, the head of the Gerindra Party
and currently the leading presidential candidate for 2014, is seizing on the
corruption issue as one of a number of populist planks in his platform. While
he was a Suharto-era general, the one-time son-in-law of the late strongman,
has recast himself as an unlikely reformer.
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