Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Respected Corruption Eradication Commission officials Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah have been forced to leave a meeting in the House of Representatives for the second time in three days.
Just two days after the pair were forced to leave a meeting between the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK, and House Commission III for legal affairs, Bibit and Chandra on Wednesday were given the cold shoulder by a number of legislators sitting on the House monitoring team overseeing the Bank Century investigation.
The rebuffs are widely seen as retribution by lawmakers for the KPK's ongoing prosecution of serving and former legislators in relation to corruption surrounding Miranda Goeltom's appointment to Bank Indonesia in 2004.
The vast majority of the more than two dozen legislators implicated in the corruption scandal come from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, which sits in an increasingly uncomfortable alliance with the ruling Democratic Party headed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
As on Monday, the main initiators of the freeze on Bibit and Chandra's appearance were PDI-P and Golkar lawmakers, though the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), another coalition member that prides itself on its anticorruption efforts, joined in.
Nudirman Munir of Golkar said that Bibit and Chandra remained suspects in relation to a hugely controversial case in 2009 in which the pair were named suspects for extortion and abuse of power in their handling of a graft case involving businessman Anggoro Widjojo.
The charges have been permanently terminated by Attorney General Basrief Arief, who has used his exclusive right to drop a case in the public interest, using a legal principle from the Dutch system known as deponering. He reiterated his position on Tuesday.
Nudirman, however, said the pair remained suspects and urged meeting leader Pramono Anung, from the PDI-P, to expel Bibit and Chandra from the meeting.
His calls were aped by the PKS's Fachry Hamzah and the PDIP's Gayus Lumbuun. As other lawmakers continued to hamper proceedings, Pramono called for a recession for lobbying to occur.
After 15 minutes, Pramono reconvened the meeting with Bibit and Chandra. However, as KPK chairman Bussyro Muqoddas attempted to deliver his report, a number of Golkar legislators began to leave the meeting, followed by two PKS lawmakers and Gayus. "I am sorry [Pramono], I have something else to do," Gayus said. After ten minutes, Pramono closed the meeting.