Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has faced a number of severe blows recently with several of its leaders allegedly involved in cases of murder and abuse of power.
Many, however, have expressed their scepticism that suspended KPK chief Antasari Azhar was, in fact, involved in the murder case or that he, along with his deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah, abused their power and extorted Anggoro Widjaya, the president of PT Masaro Radiokom, during their investigation into a graft case at the company.
With rumors abounding and many sides taking shots at the country's leading antigraft body, more and more people have expressed their support for the commission.
After receiving the backing of a group of lawyers earlier this week, the anticorruption commission was visited around 8 a.m. Tuesday, by university students and hundreds of people from nongovernmental organizations calling themselves the Love Indonesia, Love the KPK (Cicak) movement.
They all arrived wearing white shirts as they designated Tuesday's rally the "Anti-corruption White Solidarity" event. KPK officials, also wearing white shirts that day, followed the rally.
"Why did we choose white? It's so our conscience can tell which one is 'black' and which one is 'white.' We can tell which one is a cicak (lizard) and which one is a buaya (crocodile) or maybe even a Godzilla," Wahyu Suranto, chairman of the Indonesian University Student Executive Body, said.
The terms cicak and buaya became popular after National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji commented on an article published by a national magazine recently with the title cicak kok mau lawan buaya (a lizard fighting against a crocodile).
He made the statement after he was reported to be the next target of the KPK for alleged extortion in the Bank Century-Antaboga case. Speculation was circulating in the media that the KPK, with its wire-tapping authority, had recorded the conversation of a senior police officer asking for payment in connection with the transfer of US$18 million from Bank Century to Antaboga.
The KPK has kept the conversation between the senior police officer and Bank Century as evidence, and has decided to await the results of the ongoing audit by the Supreme Audit Agency on the bank before conducting any further investigations.
Amid the mounting tension between the antigraft body and the police, the latter launched an intensive investigation into the Masaro graft case and, by holding Ary Muladi as a suspect, the police gained information that KPK leaders had alledgedly accepted bribes from the company. After Antasari admitted to meeting Anggoro in Singapore and stated that his deputies were involved in the graft case too, the police decided to grill the KPK deputies
Former KPK deputy chairman Erry Riyana said the police investigation could be targeting certain officials in the graft body because they might have committed wrongdoing in their handling of the Masaro case.
"If the police have no strong evidence, this case may have been raised by design, which is why the KPK chairmen have so much support from the public," he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has declined to interfere in the conflict.