Jakarta – A number of politicians have been implicated in the graft case surrounding the Rp 1.52 trillion (US$161.12 million) project, and most of them have been questioned. But none have so far been named suspects.
KPK investigators have only named one suspect, Dedi Kusdinar, the Youth and Sports Ministry's financial and internal affairs bureau chief.
Analysts have criticized the commission for its slow progress and warned that the public may lose trust in the KPK if the antigraft body failed to carry out timely and fruitful investigations into the case.
"The KPK really has to speed things up. If they take too long, then the 'first rung of the ladder' might collapse, which would mean that we'll lose access to the higher rungs," the Indonesia Budget Center's executive director, Arif Nur Alam, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
The KPK's deputy chief, Bambang Widjojanto, recently described Dedi's position in the Hambalang case as being on the "first rung of the ladder", meaning he was a low-level suspect.
"Taking too long would give politicians time to fight back against the KPK. Other things could happen, too. Political interests could lead to the tampering of whatever evidence the KPK has," Arif said. "People could also become suspicious of the KPK."
Aside from a lack of urgency, insubstantial results could also sow seeds of doubt in people's minds, analysts said.
"People will become suspicious as to why the KPK always nabs low-level guys like Dedi but never senior-ranking ones," KPK Watch director, Yusuf Sahide, told the Post. "People like Dedi may indeed be suspects, but they aren't the main actors."
Several senior politicians have been implicated in the case including Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum and Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng.
Former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin, who was convicted for his part in a separate graft scandal, has accused Anas of playing a major role in the project, which was launched by the Youth and Sports Ministry in 2010.
The ministry appointed state-owned PT Adhi Karya as the general contractor under a joint cooperation scheme with another company, PT Wijaya Karya.
Nazaruddin claimed he had helped PT Adhi Karya win the project's tender via one of his companies, PT Anugrah Nusantara. He claimed Anas was co-owner of the company.
The KPK raided the offices of PT Adhi Karya on Friday but it has not announced its findings. "We have to ask why the standard operating procedure [SOP] for KPK investigations that involve party and political elites tends to be slow," Sahide added.
Analysts have proposed several steps that they believe would ensure quicker results for the KPK.
"We really hope there's going to be a high-level suspect by the end of the week. Otherwise, the public might think there's a problem inside the KPK," Arif said. "A public audit of the KPK by the House of Representatives could also quell public doubts about the KPK's integrity," Yusuf said.
Responding to these comments, KPK chief Abraham Samad said the commission had to be very careful in order to ensure that all suspects would stand trial and be sentenced according to the evidence uncovered.
"The KPK can't afford to be rash. That behavior, along with weak evidence, could end up being a dangerous boomerang that would come back on the KPK," Charta Politika analyst, Arya Fernandes, added. (png)