The country's path to becoming a full-fledged democracy is at stake. An inquiry into an allegedly forged document that affected the outcome of one lawmaker's election in 2009 has brought to light blatant flaws in election organization – the key element of Indonesia's democracy.
The case has jeopardized the process of the democratization that was initiated in the wake of the fall of the New Order regime in 1998. Further, former Democratic party treasurer and House legislator Muhammad Nazaruddin has been implicated in a high-profile corruption scandal.
All these allegations will tarnish the nation's status as the world's third largest democracy after India and the United States. The forgery allegations implicate Andi Nurpati, the former General Elections Commission (KPU) member who resigned to join the ruling Democratic Party last year.
After a week of media speculation, indications of flaws in the organization of the 2009 House elections were unveiled during during a hearing of the House of Representative's Commission II overseeing domestic governance and top officials of the KPU and the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) on Tuesday.
The case came into the spotlight after Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD filed a police report in February 2010 alleging that Andi, currently Democratic Party spokeswoman, forged a court letter during the 2009 elections.
At that time, the Constitutional Court (MK) was hearing a dispute between Dewi Yasin Limpo of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and Mestariyani Habie of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), both of whom claimed to have won a seat in the House to represent the South Sulawesi I electoral district.
The KPU eventually awarded Hanura the disputed seat during an Aug. 21, 2009, plenary session based on a MK letter dated Aug. 14, 2009.
KPU chief Abdul Hafiz Anshary, however, told the lawmakers on Commission II that the letter, which, incidentally, turned out to be bogus, was found on a staff member's desk on Aug. 15, 2009.
On Sept. 11, 2009, the Constitutional Court sent a letter to the KPU with the authentic letter attached, stating that the substance of the forged letter did not accord with the court's ruling. In the authentic letter, dated Aug. 17, 2009, the court ruled that Gerindra had won the dispute and the House seat.
Andi denied the allegations, saying that she never received the authentic court letter and blamed her former driver at the KPU for his failure to forward the letter to the appropriate people in the KPU.
Despite Andi's denials, the revelation by Constitutional Court chief Mahfud in February last year and the confirmation by the KPU chief on Tuesday are clear indications of irregularities surrounding the 2009 legislative election.
The officials' statements have supported claims made by individual legislative candidates and their supporting political parties prior to the announcement of the election's final results at the end of 2009.
Legally, the statements by the chiefs of the Constitutional Court and the KPU will need to be supported by evidence to prove allegations of irregularities and flaws in the 2009 legislative election are true.
It is the duty of the nation's law enforcement agencies to follow up these allegations. The country's future as a democracy is at stake.