The attorney-general says the Indonesian president is above board. But the case of the presidential masseur, and 35 billion rupiah (S$7 million) of pension funds that have gone missing with him, has taken a life of its own.
This week, Bulogate, as the scandal is dubbed, took a strange turn when the focus shifted to a US$2 million donation, meant as aid to Aceh, from the Sultan of Brunei to President Abdurrahman Wahid.
A groundswell is building up, clamouring for the president to explain alleged "unethical practices" surrounding the donation – ironically while he is away in the United States seeking assistance to fight corruption.
Gus Dur raised eyebrows recently when he said that the donations from the Sultan were personal to him, ostensibly to explain why the money was left to a personal friend to manage. Legislators agree that it is not against the law for the president to accept donations or gifts, but they, as well as anti-corruption watchers, think many questions need to be answered.
Such as: Why was the donation treated as personal when it was meant for Aceh? Why was the fund not kept in state coffers if it was indeed to be channelled as humanitarian aid to Aceh? Protests have begun to emerge in the streets against the president and the Indonesian media yesterday even reported some calls for him to step down.
President Gus Dur, however, remains committed to his overseas trip, and Indonesia watchers, noting his penchant for letting off bombshells from abroad, are wondering what he will do in response. But the turn of events must have put a lot of politicians, especially those close to President Gus Dur, on the defensive.
Muhaimin Iskandar, the secretary-general of the PKB party which Gus Dur helped found, said the president has to account for the way the fund is being handled. The Speaker of Parliament, Akbar Tanjung, said the House would no doubt raise the matter with the president.
"Would the Sultan of Brunei have made such a large donation if Gus Dur had not been the president? We do not think so. Gus Dur has to clarify," Mr Akbar said.
Ironically, too, the case would have not surfaced had Gus Dur not been the first to talk about the Sultan's donations. He did so when explaining why he couldn't have asked Suwondo, his personal masseur, to take out 35 billion worth of workers' funds from Bulog, the state logistics agency.
Since the days of former president Suharto, Bulog has always been a source of "off-budget funding" which the government uses for special purposes outside the yearly state Budget.
When Bulogate first blew up, the scandal led to the resignation of a close friend of the president, who was just appointed as acting state secretary. It also implicated the foreign minister – another member of the inner circle – as well as the attorney-general, and was threatening to tar the president himself.
As public attention on the scandal mounted, Gus Dur moved to clear his name by conceding that he had checked the availability of Bulog funds for Aceh. But he made clear that he did not go through with it when advised that a presidential decree would be required. As that would have meant a delay in the assistance, he then turned to the Sultan of Brunei for help, he said.
The way things have turned out has been quite unfortunate for the Sultan of Brunei. For he had just reprimanded his brother for misusing state funds, even bringing him to court, before a settlement was finally reached.
But the Indonesian attorney-general, Marzuki Darusman, has said the outcry over the donations was all much ado about nothing. Contrary to allegations that the Brunei donations had not been properly declared, the AG told BT that the money had actually been reported fully to the minister of finance. The channelling of the funds had also been transparent, he said in a recent interview.
Indeed, President Gus Dur has received several other donations from various sources, such as the Middle East, which he had publicly declared, the AG disclosed.
"These are monies that are accountable, and the uses of these are transparent. They are with the State Revenue Office," Mr Marzuki said. Besides, most of the missing funds from Bulog have been recovered, he added.
But does the recovery of the missing funds mean everything will be forgotten? The whole issue has once again drawn public attention to the role of off-budget spending, which has come under heavy criticism for so long, but with little effect. The International Monetary Fund has targeted off-budget spending as a source of corruption which must be reformed.
Mr Marzuki told BT that a new law is in the offing to put things right. Parliament is now insisting that future transactions and pledges of loans would have to be sanctioned by the House, he said.
President Gus Dur and Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab regard the brouhaha as nothing more than a well-coordinated move by their political enemies to unseat the president from power. But is the issue really that simple?