M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Activists want to know why Democrat Party lawmaker Aziddin has been the only legislator so far dismissed from the House of Representatives for unethical conduct. Aziddin is one of numerous unscrupulous lawmakers who should be made to leave by the House's disciplinary committee, they say.
Sebastian Salang, secretary-general of the Forum of Concerned Citizens for Indonesia's Parliament (Formappi), said there were many legislators who had committed more serious transgressions than Aziddin but for some reason had managed to elude the council's scrutiny.
"It has been an open secret that numerous House members have acted as middlemen (in deals). These lawmakers, who run their own businesses, often use their clout to bully ministers to give them contracts," Sebastian told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
However, Sebastian said the disciplinary council often found it difficult to corroborate allegations with evidence. "That is why Aziddin was the only lawmaker dismissed, the disciplinary council had for long time collected evidence to support their allegations, and they found Aziddin guilty of a long list of offenses," he said.
The council had found Aziddin was involved in lucrative land deals before a haj fund scandal that surfaced last week led to his dismissal.
Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni told House Commission VIII on social and religious affairs that Aziddin had served worked as a middleman for a firm to secure a government contract to build a dormitory for haj pilgrims in Mecca.
In its latest round of investigations, the disciplinary council uncovered three serious offenses involving three lawmakers, however the axe only dropped on Aziddin, with two other "unscrupulous" lawmakers given reprimands.
They were Tamsil Linrung of the Prosperous Justice Party, accused of serving as a broker in the procurement of medical equipment for disaster-stricken provinces, and Anhar Nasution of the Reform Star Party, who was alleged to have demanded a Rp 700 million kickback from a regent in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province for the quick disbursement of Rp 700 billion in emergency funds. A reprimand was also given to senior Golkar Party legislator Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, who chaired the House special committee on the Aceh governance law, for paying legislators with Home Ministry money to finish deliberating the bill.
Some activists believe Aziddin was singled out because his misdeeds were exposed by a government minister before the House.
Benyamin Tukan, an activist from awasiparlemen.org, an Internet database for lawmaking activities run by the Center for Press and Development Studies, said the disciplinary council should investigate public complaints about lawmakers in the same way the Corruption Eradication Commission received input from graft watchdogs before launching an investigation. "It is time for the disciplinary council to open itself up and hear more reports from the public," he said.
Responding to the suggestion, deputy chairman of the disciplinary council Gayus Lumbuun, a lawmaker with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said the council welcomed input from the public. "But we have the final say over what decision the council should take, as it concerns our own members," Gayus told a discussion organized by a private radio station.