Yeremia Sukoyo – The graft-addled Prosperous Justice Party may be changed with corporate crime offenses that could eventually lead to its disbandment, a former Islamic student leader has warned.

Syahrul Efendi Dasopang on Tuesday said the party known as PKS had to decide whether to stand by senior figures accused of corruption, or to cut them loose to protect the party. "They can either save the party or the individuals," he said.

The PKS's former chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq and advisory chairman Hilmi Aminuddin have been named by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as suspects in a case involving the payment of bribes from a meat company in exchange for assistance in securing additional beef import quotas.

Syahrul, a former leader of the Islamic Students Association (HMI), said the current leaders of the PKS needed to protect it from the impact of the actions of the former senior figures.

"If they retain Hilmi, they are taking the risk of being disbanded for having conducted corporate corruption," Syahrul told a discussion on Islam and politics at the Islamic Youth Movement (Gerakan Pemuda Islam) headquarters in Jakarta.

Syahrul said the PKS would benefit from "getting rid of" Hilmi and installing members of Muhammadiyah and the Nahdlatul Ulama – Islamic religious organizations – as party officers. "Should they decide to take such a step, the PKS would be slightly 'safer' from being dismissed as they will have a stronger composition," he said.

Last week, Zainudin Paru, a lawyer representing the PKS, claimed the KPK had discriminated against the party by subjecting it to close scrutiny for several weeks.

Zainudin criticized political experts who called for the KPK to name the PKS a suspect for corporate corruption, saying the KPK should first solve corruption cases involving the Democratic Party, of which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is the chairman.

"If KPK wants to trace down corporate corruption, they better prioritize the Democratic Party, [starting] with [former Democratic Party treasurer and graft convict Muhammad] Nazaruddin," Zainudin said on May 20. He added that the statements made by experts were "nothing but provocations to corner the PKS."

Zainudin was referring at the time to statements made by Donald Fariz, an activist from Indonesia Corruption Watch, who said the party was legally eligible to be named a suspect for corporate corruption. Donald said the 1999 Corruption Law regulated not only crimes committed by individuals but also by corporations.

Earlier this month, KPK deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas said the commission had not named the PKS a suspect for corporate corruption and had not confiscated its assets or blocked its bank accounts, as the Corruption Law allows it to do.

"It has not yet gone that far.... It is still being treated as an individual crime," said Busyro, a former chairman of the Judicial Commission.

But Busyro said it was a standard procedure for the KPK to investigate the flow of funds from a corruption suspect. The KPK has seized several cars allegedly linked to Luthfi as part the beef probe.