Tenggara Strategics, Jakarta – The police are investigating Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) head Firli Bahuri over allegations of extorting Rp 1 billion (US$65,000) from Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo to halt a corruption probe into the cabinet minister.
Syahrul visited the Jakarta Police headquarters last Thursday to file a complaint against the KPK chief and submit evidence to support his extortion claim. A few days afterward, the police announced that their preliminary investigation had yielded enough evidence against Firli to launch a criminal investigation.
One piece of evidence that was leaked and went immediately viral on social media was a photograph of the two men seated at a badminton court in West Jakarta, allegedly taken in December 2022. This could prove that Firli had violated the KPK code of ethics, which bans its personnel from meeting individual subjects of a corruption investigation.
Firli has denied the extortion claim while debunking the alleged ethics breach, saying the meeting at the badminton court took place in March 2022 before Syahrul had been named as a corruption suspect. He said the KPK had opened its investigation into the minister in January 2023. While he did not reveal what was discussed at their meeting, he stressed that it was arranged on Syahrul's initiative.
Aside from claiming that the viral photo was misdated, Firli said that many details of the alleged extortion on social media were pure fabrication, including when the money had changed hands between the two officials' aides.
Firli has so far kept his job as the KPK chief, but he might have to step down if the police change his status to a suspect of a criminal investigation. This is a very likely possibility, as the quickness at which the police were able to launch a full investigation following the initial complaint suggests they have a strong case against one of their own: Firli, 59, retired from the National Police in December 2021 with the rank of commissioner general.
Firli has faced many allegations of breaching KPK ethics in the past and got got off lightly on two proven occasions of an ethics breach, but has never faced a criminal charge. In 2018, when he was KPK deputy head, he was found to have violated the antigraft body's ethics code by meeting with then-West Nusa Tenggara governor Muhammad Zainul Majdi, who was a witness in a corruption case at the time. Firli was then recalled to the police force and despite his record, he was reappointed to the KPK in 2021, this time as its chief.
In 2020, the KPK supervisory board gave him a written reprimand for committing an ethics violation when he showed off his "hedonistic lifestyle" by accepting a helicopter ride that was offered to make a personal trip. He survived another ethics scandal in June, when the board dropped its probe into allegations that he had leaked internal documents on a corruption investigation into the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
In contrast, Syahrul resigned from his cabinet post on Oct. 6, saying that he needed to focus on clearing his name in a separate corruption probe into the agriculture ministry. He has his work cut out though, as the KPK has expanded its investigation from an initial gratuity probe to money laundering. The police may also expand their investigation, since KPK investigators found not only Rp 3 billion in cash, mostly in foreign banknotes, but also 12 firearms during a raid on Syahrul's official residence.
What's more
The KPK raided both his official and private residences while Syahrul was in Europe for an international agriculture conference, where he accepted an award recognizing Indonesia's best practices in containing plant viruses on behalf of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Syahrul then delayed his return to Indonesia for a few days and reportedly went incommunicado amid the commotion over the KPK raids. When he eventually returned, he first went to the police to file his complaint against Firli and then announced his resignation.
How his corruption case evolves will have political consequences, since Syahfrul is a member of the NasDem Party, which is part of Jokowi's coalition government.
His downfall will not only hurt the party's standing in next year's legislative elections, but also the chances of former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan in the presidential race in February 2024, as NasDem leads the three-way electoral alliance backing Anies' nomination.
To strengthen his own defense as well as his efforts to go after Firli, Syahrul has retained the services of lawyer Febri Diansyah, who is a former KPK spokesman and therefore knows the ins and outs of the antigraft agency, including Firli.
Between the two cases, the KPK probe is at a more advanced stage and on Wednesday, it named as suspects Syahrul as well as two other senior officials of the Agriculture Ministry. All three have been summoned to the KPK and are likely to be detained immediately upon their arrival, but Syahrul has avoided his summons, saying he had to fly home to Makassar, South Sulawesi, to attend to a sick relative.
What we've heard
Some sources said during the meeting with Syahrul, President Jokowi said KPK chief Firli Bahuri had asked for a meeting, but Jokowi had not approved the request. The conversation then reportedly touched on allegations of extortion involving Firli. Syahrul asked the President to verify his account with other ministers.
Before appointing the Head of the Food Agency as acting agriculture minister, sources within the Presidential Palace said the vacant post had been offered to the Democratic Party. According to them, President Jokowi had extended an invitation to the Democratic Party to join the cabinet during his meeting with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) at the Bogor Palace, West Java, on October 2. However, "SBY has not responded to the offer," the source stated.
The source said SBY was weighing whether to accept this offer or not. This was because, according to the source, the party's chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, considered the most prepared person to become a minister, is seen as lacking competency in the agricultural sector.
When it comes to the extortion case, an insider who knows about this case said the Jakarta Police would transfer the case to the National Police. "It will be handled directly by the headquarters because it's an important case," said a source.
The alleged extortion began when the KPK started investigating corruption allegations in the Agriculture Ministry in mid-2022. Semarang Police chief Sr. Comr. Irwan Anwar, who is Syahrul's nephew and a former subordinate of Firli in the West Nusa Tenggara Regional Police, helped Syahrul. "Irwan is key, which is why he has been questioned by investigators," the source said.
One of Syahrul's subordinates said the money was delivered to Firli through Irwan. In October 2022, the money amounting to Rp 1 billion was handed over by Syahrul's driver to Irwan at his residence in South Jakarta.
[This content is provided by Tenggara Strategics in collaboration with The Jakarta Post to serve the latest comprehensive and reliable analysis on Indonesia's political and business landscape.]