Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The election of Miranda Swaray Goeltom as central bank senior deputy governor in 2004 was the "result of a conspiracy" between bankers and businesspeople, a legislator alleges.
Pieter Zulkifli Simabuea from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party said Wednesday that he had "accurate information" that there were financiers behind Miranda's election.
"I have all the names," he said during a hearing between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs, in which he is a member.
"I have studied Miranda's history. She does not have the financial power [to pull off her win]," he added.
Pieter, however, refused to identify any of the alleged conspirators. "I will only spill the beans after the KPK announces its investigations of them," he said. He added the KPK would have already identified the perpetrators.
"There is no way the KPK does not know of them, and there is no way that the PPATK [Financial Transactions Report and Analysis Center] has not already filed a report on them," he said.
However, Pieter said, there were efforts to thwart the investigation into the case. "There is a plot created by a businessperson to stop the case [from going further]. In the beginning, they did not imagine [the case] would come to light," he added.
He criticized the antigraft body's slow handling of the case, which has implicated dozens of former legislators.
Thirty-nine members of the previous House's Commission IX overseeing banking and financial issues have been accused of receiving traveler's checks worth a total of Rp 24 billion in return for their support for Miranda.
"There has been a lot of criticism that the KPK is not serious in handling this case. Why has it only named four suspects while witnesses at the trials have mentioned many others? All of them have to be investigated," he said. He urged the KPK to act quickly to identify the suspects.
KPK deputy chairman Chandra M Hamzah told legislators that the KPK would investigate alleged corruption suspects in the case. "The KPK will always monitor the trials and conduct its own evaluation. This case is not over," he said.
The four suspects named by the KPK are Dudhie Makmun Murod from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), Hamka Yandhu from the Golkar Party, Endin Soefihara from the United Development Party (PPP) and Udju Djuhaeri from the former Indonesian Military-National Police wing.
Their trials have led to allegations that businesswoman Nunun Nurbaeti arranged the delivery of the traveler's checks to the legislators after Miranda's election through middleman Arie Malangjudo.
Efforts to bring Nunun to testify at the trials have repeatedly failed. Nunun, the wife of former National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Adang Daradjatun, is currently in Singapore allegedly receiving treatment for amnesia. "Nunun is the key," Pieter said.
Like Pieter, Adang is also a member of the House's Commission III. However, he, did not attend Wednesday's hearing. Commission chairman Benny K Harman said Adang did not inform him he would be absent.