Asia Times: Indonesia: Speaker's trial a foregone, corrupt conclusion


	March 30, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Indonesia: Speaker's trial a foregone, corrupt conclusion
By Richel Langit

JAKARTA - The trial of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung is the last bet for the Indonesian government to combat corruption, collusion and nepotism after it failed to prosecute former strongman Suharto and his youngest son, playboy Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.

Being the chairman of Golkar, the second-biggest faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) with 120 legislators, Tandjung is undoubtedly one of the most powerful politicians the country has today and putting him behind prison bars would definitely rekindle the government's wavering anti-corruption campaign.

And as the chairman of a political party blamed for rampant corruption, collusion and nepotism, Tandjung is like Pandora's box. Many politicians, including those close to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, are likely to go to prison if Tandjung, through a fair and just court proceedings, is imprisoned. Consequently, failing to prove his corruption and putting him behind bars may put an end to government's anti-corruption campaign.

Almost immediately after the Attorney General's Office detained Tandjung in early March, the Supreme Court overruled a lower court decision acquitting a fellow Golkar member of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Ginandjar Kartasasmita, of corruption charges. Just recently, the Attorney General's Office detained a well-connected businessman, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, an older brother of former army Strategic Reserve Command officer Prabowo Subianto, who is a son-in-law of former dictator Suharto. During Suharto's regime, these people were untouchables.

Unfortunately, rather than opening Pandora's box, Megawati and the country's political elite as well as the court are conniving to seal the box's lid and, in the process, spare Tandjung from the full course of law.

Megawati's insistence not to interfere in the legal process of Tandjung's corruption case gives the impression that she is determined to free the country's court trials from the kind of political intervention former president Suharto did in his 32 years of iron-fisted government. But a critical reading into her stance reveals that the "political intervention" Megawati refers to is the setting up of a House inquiry team to investigate Tandjung's alleged corruption charges, a move that would not only disclose the Golkar chairman's alleged corruption charges but also threaten her own government.

She seems to forget that it requires her administration's strong political will (meaning political decision) to wipe out the corruption, collusion and nepotism that have pushed the country's economy to bankruptcy. One political move that she can readily take is instructing her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) legislators in the House to mobilize and support moves to probe Tandjung.

What Megawati and her party have demonstrated so far is the betrayal of people who demand that Tandjung be investigated not only by the court but also by the House, noting that Tandjung is the Speaker of one of the country's highest public political institutions.

PDI Perjuangan, the biggest faction in the House, has notoriously demanded a delay in the decision whether or not the House should form an investigation team to question Tandjung. The impression PDI Perjuangan wants to send out is that the party would make sure that the law takes its due course. Only when the legal process does not proceed as desired - meaning it does not meet the people's sense of justice - will the faction set up an inquiry team to investigate the beleaguered Golkar chairman.

But, given that Megawati owes her presidential post mainly to Golkar, it is very likely that she and PDI Perjuangan are just waiting for the court verdict to put Tandjung's corruption case to rest. Once the court issues a verdict, regardless of whether it imprisons or frees Tandjung, PDI Perjuangan would have all the more reason to say that the legal process has proceeded smoothly and therefore the House has no solid ground to investigate Tandjung's alleged corruption. In so doing, PDI Perjuangan would be spared Golkar's wrath, while to the public the party could always say that Indonesia was a country based on the rule of law and that its citizens had to respect the court verdict.

Indonesia's courts are notorious for corrupt practices. It is difficult to expect a fair and just trial outcome from a corrupt court. The recent decision by the Central Jakarta District Court to increase the number of judges from three to five for Tandjung's trial gives a hint at how bribery may affect the verdict. The decision seems to have been made to give the impression that the court was serious in its pursuit for a fair and just trial. But speculations are rife that it was made to deceive the public that the judges would be fair and objective in their decision. As Golkar has a lot of funds, bribing five judges is not significantly different from bribing three judges.

Looking at the charges the state prosecutors leveled against Tandjung, it is very clear that the court trial is designed to whitewash the Golkar chairman's corruption case. Tandjung stands accused of misusing Rp40 billion (about US$4 million) in non-budgetary funds from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) while he was minister/state secretary. The case implicates big names, including former president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie and former Bulog head and minister of industry and trade Rahardi Ramelan.

Tandjung has been charged with abusing his power and of enriching himself and others to the effect that the state suffered losses. Now that Winfried Simatupang, one of the defendants in the case, has returned the money in full, the charge is no longer relevant. So, in all likelihood, Tandjung will be acquitted.

Clearly, Tandjung's corruption trial is merely a ploy to save him, Golkar and PDI Perjuangan as well as Megawati's presidency. Corruption, collusion and nepotism have very much become part of Indonesia's culture and are there to stay.

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