Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) decision to halt an investigation into non-budgetary funds in the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries shows that political power still comes into play in Indonesia's anti-corruption enforcement, law experts say.
"KPK's reason for stopping the investigation – because there's not enough evidence – is baseless," Denny Indrayana from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
"Testimony of Rokhmin Dahuri at trial and recognition from Amien Rais are unavoidable evidence that there is corruption here." Rokhmin is a former maritime and fisheries minister who was convicted of graft.
Denny added that this case was unlikely to be settled as it involved the political elite. "In Indonesia, political corruption is an area that's difficult for the law to touch, because people who have access here are still exerting influence."
Emerson Juntho from the Indonesia Corruption Watch said that the KPK would usually back off if the case it was handling involved political interests.
"It's clear that the KPK still discriminates among the corruption cases reported to them. KPK usually withdraws when it comes to politics involving legislators. They're only dealing with small cases which are unrelated to politics," Emerson told the Post.
"As a super-body, they have great authority in resolving cases. It's just that they don't want to resolve them."
KPK's chairman Taufiequrrahman Ruki, who will end his tenure in December, said there were four reasons for stopping the investigation.
First, the funds were used by Rokhmin to support the ministry's official tasks under his leadership.
Second, some of the funds went to the House of Representatives. "The funds were used for administrative fees in trials, and also for meals for staffers. So how can that be called graft?" Taufiequrrahman said as quoted by detik.com.
Third, he said, the funds were disbursed to individuals outside of public offices, so that it could not be categorized as corruption, and the recipients would not have known whether the money was linked to corruption.
"The last point, which is still under our investigation, is the disbursement of funds for groups, which were used for the personal enrichment of one individual," he said.
The ministry received non-budgetary funds totaling Rp 11.39 billion (US$1.24 million) from fishery agencies throughout the country and several businessmen during Rokhmin's tenure.
Those businessmen include Dicky Iskandar Dinata (Rp 150 million), Husni Manggabarani (US$5,000), David Lazarus Simbar (Rp 1.5 billion), Paskah Gumilang (Rp 55 million), Sofyan Basyir (Rp 100 million), Glen Glenardi (Rp 100 million), Sumpeno Putro (Rp 90 million) and the Tama family (US$400,000).
In July, Rokhmin was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined Rp 250 million in addition to being required to return Rp 1.31 billion of funds that had been collected and used illegally. Rokhmin is preparing to appeal the decision.
Denny said that the halting of the investigation would not change the decision in the Rokhmin case, saying that Rokhmin admitted that he had collected and used the money.
Meanwhile, Rokhmin refused to comment on the termination of the investigation. "I will only focus on my appeal," Rokhmin told detik.com.