Ezra Sihite – A meeting on Monday between the House of Representatives and corruption officials to resolve a standoff over scrutiny of budget-rigging degenerated into a free-for-all for legislators to take potshots at the investigators.
Benny K. Harman, chairman of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, kicked off the proceedings by accusing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of cherry-picking cases for investigation with the specific aim of pursuing legislators.
"We at Commission III support the KPK's genuine efforts to crack down on graft, but we ask that the process be free of politicization," he said.
Benny, from the ruling Democratic Party, alleged that the way the KPK named those it planned to call in for questioning made it seem as though they were presumed guilty.
He added that investigators had opted for sensation rather than delving into the substance of cases, thereby reinforcing the idea that the antigraft body was politically biased.
"We ask that the KPK carry out its legal procedures without raising so much of a ruckus, which it can avoid by complying with the Criminal Code Procedures and the Law on the KPK," he said.
Monday's meeting was called by the House leadership to quell the animosity between the two bodies after the House Budget Committee suspended discussions of the 2012 state budget last week in protest at the questioning of its leaders by the KPK over graft allegations in a project administered by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.
Azis Syamsuddin, the Commission III deputy chairman from the Golkar Party, accused the KPK of focusing on the Budget Committee, headed by a Golkar member, in a bid to distract public attention from similar allegations of bid-rigging within the Sports Ministry – headed by a Democrat and for which the ruling party's former treasurer has been named a suspect.
"Why is it that when the Manpower Ministry case emerged, the [KPK's] response was immediate, whereas in the other case none of the top people implicated have been called for questioning?" he said. "What's behind this discrepancy? Heaven forbid it's an attempt at misdirection."
KPK chairman Busyro Muqoddas denied that his office played favorites when it came to investigating cases. "What would be the benefit of distracting [from the Sports Ministry case]?" he asked legislators. "There would be no point and that is certainly not how we work. If anything, that would constitute a blunder."
He pointed out that the two cases were fundamentally different: the Sports Ministry case centered on the contract to build an athletes' village for next month's Southeast Asian Games, while the Manpower Ministry case concerned a contract for development projects in the country's eastern regions.
"I don't think I need to tell you that the athletes' village case is truly complex. Everyone knows this," Busyro said, adding this was why the probe was progressing slower than in the Manpower Ministry case.
He also denied that his office was attempting to paint the House Budget Committee in a bad light by calling its leaders in for questioning.
"We always made it clear that we had summoned them as individual legislators, not as representative of a state institution," he said. "As for why [the chairman and three deputies] were called in at the same time, that's just standard investigative procedure."
Busyro added that just because they had been questioned did not mean they would be named suspects in the case. "Many witnesses are called in for questioning by our investigators but are never named suspects," he said. "We don't have a political agenda and we are not subject to intervention from political parties."
House Speaker Marzuki Alie, who presided over Monday's meeting, said any outstanding issues between the House and the KPK could be discussed at future hearings with Commission III.