Rizky Amelia & Carlos Paath – The decision late on Monday by the national antigraft commission to finally charge Ratu Atut Chosiyah, the governor of Banten province, with corruption could mark an important milestone in the war to eliminate the corruption inherent in the political dynasties being built up in regions throughout the country.
Hidayat Nur Wahid, a former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), welcomed the arrest of Ratu Atut, a member of the Golkar Party, and urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to go after other regional leaders.
"There are many other political dynasties. The KPK should go all the way," he said on Tuesday. "This effort to look into the political dynasty, hegemony and monopoly of power in Banten should be appreciated."
Hidayat said political dynasties in Indonesia served a "vicious circle," and that Ratu Atut's case should be seen as a warning for the public to be more careful about the leaders they elected into office.
Banten has long had a reputation of being firmly in the grip of Ratu Atut and her extended family. The governor, 50, served a five-year term as deputy governor before being elected governor. She is now in her second term as the governor, and is the only woman in Indonesia to have ever reached that position.
Her son, Andika Hazrumy, is a member of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) from Banten, while her late husband, Hikmat Tomet, was a Golkar legislator at the House of Representatives. Ratu Atut's sister-in-law, Airin Rachmy Diani, is the mayor of South Tangerang, also in Banten, while her half-brother, Tubagus Haerul Jaman, is the mayor of Serang, the provincial capital.
In total, there are up to 11 individuals within the family with positions of power in cities and districts throughout Banten.
Ratu Atut was on Tuesday named a suspect, though not arrested, in connection with corruption in the procurement of medical equipment for public hospitals in South Tangerang and Banten, and in connection with the bribery of the Constitutional Court's chief justice to influence the result of an election in Banten's Lebak district earlier this year.
The judge in question, Akil Mochtar, was arrested by the KPK in October, along with Ratu Atut's brother, Tubagus "Wawan" Chaeri Wardana, who was believed to have arranged the bribe on orders from the governor.
Earlier this month, KPK chairman Abraham Samad said that allowing political dynasties to flourish left plenty of room for corruption, and cited Atut's regime in Banten as a focal point of his office's investigation into such practices. "There's a family crime happening in Banten," he said in Jakarta on Dec. 5.
However, Ratu Atut's family is not the only dynasty monopolizing power in its respective region.
The family of South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo has also long been criticized for building its own political empire, with members in the regional government, regional legislatures and the House of Representatives.
Jimly Asshiddiqie, a former chief justice of the Constitutional Court, said in Jakarta last Friday that decentralization of power away from Jakarta over the past 15 years had given rise to the abuse of political power across Indonesia.
"Political dynasties have created political disparities, further expanding the gap between the rich and the poor. For 15 years they have enjoyed freedom for their own good," he said.
Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said in July that a total of 298 governors, district heads and mayors had been jailed, nearly all of them for corruption, since regional autonomy was introduced in 1999.
Separate figures from Kompas in October said 57 regional heads and deputy heads enjoyed the support of family members in their regional political scene.
The officials in question are reportedly spread across 15 provinces, including Banten, Lampung, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
The matter of political dynasties and their proclivity for corruption and abuse of power was the subject of national debate earlier this year, when Home Affairs Minister Gamawan proposed in October that the government draft legislation to prevent powerful families from establishing political empires at the regional level.
The regulation, the minister said, should prohibit the spouse, offspring or siblings of any individual who has one who has served as a regional head, be it as mayor, district head or governor, from running for regional office within five years of the individual leaving office.
Gamawan called for the prohibition to be included in a packet of proposed amendments to the regional elections law, currently being deliberated at the House.
Indonesia Corruption Watch, a nongovernmental organization, called on the KPK in the wake of Ratu Atut being named a suspect to broaden the scope of its investigation in Banten.
"Besides the cases [for which Ratu Atut has been charged], there are many other cases and other people involved who remain untouched, both from Ratu Atut's family and from outside," Ade Irawan, an ICW activist, said on Tuesday.
The watchdog previously revealed that between 2011 and 2013, companies linked to the governor and members of her family and cronies were awarded 175 government contracts worth a total of Rp 1,148 trillion.
"The ease with which the governor and her family manipulated various projects in Banten to be awarded to companies that they controlled would never have been possible without the complicity of the bureaucracy and the local legislatures," Ade said. "As the vehicles and supporters of these illegal practices for many years, these [officials and legislators] must have benefited from the family as well."
The KPK's decision to name Ratu Atut a suspect in the medical equipment procurement scandal is seen by many as a natural progression in the case that began with the arrest of her brother, Wawan, for bribing the Constitutional Court's Akil.
Upon investigating Wawan's activities further, KPK investigators tied him to the procurement project that also implicates his wife, South Tangerang Mayor Airin.
There is mounting speculation that the mayor will be the next domino to fall in what antigraft activists have hailed as the unraveling of Indonesia's most entrenched and corrupt dynasty.