Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ronna Nirmala – The law enforcement establishment's intense focus on graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin should not allow other alleged corruption by Democratic Party officials to go unpunished, analysts and legislators said on Monday.
Ray Rangkuti, director of the Indonesian Civic Network (LIMA), said there were strong indications that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was only aggressively pursuing Nazaruddin because its own officials had been implicated in ethical violations by the former Democratic treasurer.
By contrast, he said, investigations into earlier allegations of graft against senior Democrats had been dragging on fruitlessly for months.
"The KPK has already probed Max Sopacua and Jhonny Allen Marbun," Ray said, referring to the Democratic deputy chairmen. "We hope it doesn't stop investigating them just because of the Nazaruddin case."
Max, along with the Golkar Party's Asiah Salekan and Charles Jonas Mesang, is being investigated for his role in rigging a bid for a contract to supply X-ray equipment to the Health Ministry in 2007.
Of the Rp 170 million ($20,000) in traveler's checks allegedly handed out to the three legislators by state-owned pharmaceutical company Kimia Farma – which won the bid – Max is said to have taken Rp 45 million, which he then put toward the purchase of a car for his son.
Asiah and Charles are alleged to have taken Rp 35 million and Rp 90 million, respectively.
Edi Suranto and Syafii Ahmad, both former Health Ministry secretaries general, and Mardjono, another ministry official, are currently standing trial in the case.
Syafii is alleged to have received Rp 9 billion in traveler's checks from Budiarto Maliang, a Kimia Farma commissioner. Firman Wijaya, Syafii's lawyer, said Max should be named a suspect immediately based on the weight of the evidence already presented against him.
"Corruption is about a partnership among the players: the private contractor, the government official and the legislator who approves the funding," he said. "Max's role in the graft case is already clear – he received a bribe."
Ray said it was ironic that Max was so vocal in calling for Nazaruddin to be brought to justice for allegedly rigging a bid for the contract to build an athletes' village for the Southeast Asian Games when he himself was implicated in a similar case.
"We understand the KPK has an interest in focusing fully on Nazaruddin in order to clear its own name, but please don't let that hamper the other graft investigations," he said.
Previously, Ade Raharja, the KPK's chief of investigations and prosecutions, said Nazaruddin had met with him once to pressure the antigraft agency to drop its probe into Max.
On Monday, Democrat legislator Benny K. Harman confirmed the allegation that he and Nazaruddin had previously met with antigraft commissioners on two separate occasions.
Speaking after testifying before a KPK ethics tribunal into the meeting, Benny said the first meeting occurred in the Casablanca area of South Jakarta and included Ade and Saan Mustofa, a Democratic deputy secretary general.
He said the second meeting took place at Nazaruddin's house in Pejaten, South Jakarta, and included KPK deputy chairman Chandra M. Hamzah.
"I was there because I was invited by Nazaruddin. I attended as his subordinate in the Democratic Party," Benny said.
However, he denied that the meetings discussed any ongoing KPK investigations into Democratic officials or involved any discussion about, or transfer of, money. "One thing I told Ade Rahardja at the time was to advise him that if he got any information from Nazaruddin, not to take it at face value because it was not something that could be fully believed," he said. Nazaruddin has also alleged that he met with KPK spokesman Johan Budi.
Jhonny, meanwhile, is alleged to have taken a Rp 1 billion bribe from Hontjo Kurniawan to help the businessman's company, Kurnia Jaya Wira Bhakti, secure lucrative infrastructure projects in eastern Indonesia.
He has been questioned by the KPK but never charged, despite two of his former personal assistants publicly alleging he took the money.
Another top official fingered by Nazaruddin is Democratic chairman Anas Urbaningrum, who was accused of funding his bid for the party's top post using money embezzled from the state budget.
Anas, who has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Nazaruddin, left the country on Monday for Mecca to perform the umroh, or minor hajj.
Ruhut Sitompul, a Democratic legislator, denied the move was a ploy to avoid being summoned for questioning by the KPK.
"He's only going to be away for five or six days and will return shortly, so there's no way he's trying to avoid an investigation," he said.
He added that the trip had been approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the party's chief patron.
Hendrawan Supratikno, a legislator with the Indonesian Democratic party of Struggle (PDI-P), called on the KPK to fully investigate all of the graft allegations, including those linked to the Democrats, in order to reverse a slide in its public credibility. "The evidence for all these cases is already in their hands," he said.