Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Indonesia's top antigraft body would not send a second summons letter to former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who on Monday failed to come for questioning in connection with a high-profile bribery case.
Megawati, chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), was due for questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The commission's investigators, however, only met with two PDI-P officials who came to explain why their leader refused to be grilled.
"Bu Mega is not coming because she has nothing to do with the case," PDI-P secretary-general Tjahjo Kumolo said. Along with him was a party deputy and member of the House's law and human rights commission, Trimedya Panjaitan.
KPK spokesman Johan Budi said the commission would not summon Megawati again. "We summoned her by request of a number of the suspects implicated in the case. Bu Mega is not a witness whose testimony would be considered necessary for our investigation."
However, KPK deputy chairman, M. Jasin, said the antigraft body could go to Megawati's residence to question her, but the move would depend on her consent.
"We are flexible. If she gives a signal [that she is willing to be questioned at home], we will come," Jasin said during a seminar in Surabaya, East Java, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
The KPK previously questioned Vice President Boediono and former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati at their residences in connection with the Bank Century bailout scandal.
As many as 24 former and current lawmakers have been detained by the KPK for allegedly accepting traveler's checks as bribes during the 2004 election of a Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor at the House of Representatives.
The traveler's checks, totaling Rp 24 billion (US$2.71 million), were given to the then lawmakers allegedly in exchange for supporting Miranda S. Goeltom's bid for the position at the central bank.
Max Moein and Poltak Sitorus, two of the 14 suspected PDI-P politicians, have asked the KPK to summon Megawati, as they claimed the funds they received were used to finance her campaign during the 2004 presidential election.
Max's lawyer, Petrus Selestinus, called Megawati "arrogant". "[Megawati] feels she is above the law. She should not excuse herself as a former president and party chairwoman," he said.
Jasin shared Petrus' view, saying Megawati should answer the KPK's summons and demonstrate the principle of "equality before the law". "If she came, it would be a credit to her."
Former vice president Jusuf Kalla said that if he had been Megawati, he would have gone to the KPK. "But don't take it the wrong way. I don't want to judge Bu Mega," he said.
Last month, Kalla fulfilled a summons from the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in connection with a graft case centering on a ministry's online registration system. The summons was requested by a suspect in the case, former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
A political observer from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), Burhanuddin Muhtadi, said Mega's summons from the KPK was likely driven by political reasons.
"Why doesn't the KPK pursue Nunun first? Her testimony would be far more important than Megawati's," he said referring to Nunun Nurbaeti, a businesswoman who allegedly distributed the traveler's checks through a middleman.
By summoning Megawati, the KPK gave the impression that "political interests, particularly of the PDI-P's enemies, had interfered with the commission," he said.
"The summoning was also very close to the political bickering at the House over the plan to establish a legislature inquiry on tax mafia where PDI-P's politicians may have been the initiators," Burhanuddin said.