Camelia Pasandaran – In the context of the events of the past two weeks, an unusual event occurred on Friday – hundreds of people rallied at the Presidential Palace against the two suspended deputy chairmen of the antigraft commission, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah.
The demonstrators – at least one of whom admitted to being paid to protest – demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dismiss the special fact-finding team he formed on Monday to investigate the police case against Bibit and Chandra.
The group, which claimed to have been composed of representatives from seven anticorruption organizations and university students, voiced concerns over the criminalization of the National Police – the same sentiment expressed by some members of the House of Remembers at a late-night hearing on Thursday.
"It is better for the president to dismiss the investigation team because they are not independent," Dimas, one of the demonstrators, yelled.
Dimas said that the Corruption Eradication Commission, known as the KPK, was not a "superbody" and it should not protect its "guilty members."
"The public should not be trapped by misleading opinion regarding the Bibit and Chandra case," Dimas said. "We should let the National Police and Attorney General's Office work properly based on the law."
The protestors claimed the fact-finding team had stepped outside of its mandate by issuing political statements and had degraded the stature of the National Police and the AGO. "Provocative statements made by the team have caused confusion," Dimas said.
In contrast to the pro-KPK demonstrations seen in the past week that involved famous figures and activists from prominent NGOs, Friday's rally involved relatively unknown people from unknown organizations. One of the organizations identified itself as the Indonesian University Student Solidarity, but fewer than five university students wearing the jacket of Borobudur University were seen.
A teenager participating in the rally told the Jakarta Globe that he had received "pocket money" to join the rally.