Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The House's honor council should better concentrate its investigations into legislators allegedly involved in the procurement of weapons and defense equipment for the Indonesian Military (TNI), experts said.
Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said last week several House of Representatives legislators had acted as agents for the procurement of weapons and military equipment for the TNI.
"Even if the defense minister did not uncover who the persons (brokers) are, the House's honor council still has to follow up and investigate his (Juwono's) statement," Syamsuddin Haris, a military observer at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He said the honor council should ask the minister to uncover who the legislators were. "It would be better if the minister prepared the data to support his statement so that the council could investigate the allegation," he said.
Syamsuddin said the minister's statement was a positive move toward a better and more transparent future government, but said it would initially harm the relationship between the House and the government.
University of Indonesia military observer Arbi Sanit said he agreed with Syamsuddin.
"I think the defense minister must have strong reasons in issuing such statements," Arbi said. "I think (Juwono's statement) is likely true because the same (brokerage allegation) reportedly exists around the establishment of new autonomous regions."
He said the draft law on the expansion of new regions was still being deliberated in the House while new regions continued to be named. "I've heard many stories of regional administrations giving money to House members in order to pass their proposals and to establish new regencies and mayoralties," he said.
Arbi said he believed the same had occurred in the procurement of military weapons and equipment. "They (House members) increase the defense budget on purpose, so that they can get some incentives from those in the weaponry business," he said.
He said if the honor council really intended to uncover the case, it would track down legislators heavily involved in determining the defense budget and investigate their relationship with weaponry businessmen. "They (legislators) cannot just deny the allegations," Arbi said.
Legislator with the House's commission I overseeing defense affairs Djoko Susilo said the allegations had not been deliberated because the House was still in recess. "We will talk about this in November," Djoko said.
But he condemned the minister for issuing the statement, saying it would harm the image of the House in general and demoralize its members. "It would be better if he could just point out the names, so that his allegations can be clearer," he said.