Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – More and more senior politicians from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, including party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, have faced public suspicions over their involvement in major corruption scandals.
Sutan Batoegana, one of the Democratic Party's most senior legislators, was implicated in a high-profile graft case. This time, the accusation came from the lawyer of a defendant in a similar case.
The spokesman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Johan Budi, told reporters that his office was considering questioning Sutan over corruption allegations surrounding the 2009 procurement of Rp 526 billion (US$57 million) of solar energy equipment at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
"Should the corruption court say Sutan's testimony before trial is necessary, we will summon him," he added.
Sofyan Kasim, the lawyer of ministry official Ridwan Sanjaya, who has been named a suspect in the case, accused a number of figures of having a role in the case. Included in his accusations were Sutan and "a police general with the initial G.".
"The companies that won the project tender were backed by those powerful figures," Sofyan said on the sidelines of Ridwan's trial hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Friday.
Sutan denied that he was involved in the case. "I was instead the one who uncovered the mismanagement," he said.
Sutan recalled a moment when a businessman who had lost the tender came to his office at the House of Representatives. "This businessman protested the ministry's bidding processes, which he said was unfair. He said he would file a report with the KPK, and I supported his move," Sutan said. He said he would be ready should the KPK or the court summon him.
The KPK has also named the power and energy utilization director-general at the ministry, Jacobus Purwono, and a contracting officer at the directorate-general, Kosasih, as suspects.
The two allegedly accepted Rp 4.6 billion from the winning contractor, which was transferred into a "tactical fund account" at the ministry, according to Johan.
The KPK says that the procurement bidding had been engineered to benefit certain parties. The case caused at least Rp 131 billion, equal to 25 percent of the project's total value, in state losses, according to the KPK.
The Democratic Party is facing massive waves of criticism after many of its members have been charged with graft.
The party's central executive board has sacked four of its members involved in corruption cases, namely As'ad Syam, a member of the party's central executive board, Murman Effendi, the head of the party's Bengkulu branch, Djufri, a lawmaker who also heads the party's West Sumatra branch, and former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin.
The head of the party's anticorruption division, Didi Irawady Syamsuddin, the son of Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin, said the media tended to over-react when a Democratic Party member was implicated in a corruption case.
"We won't interfere with any of our members' legal processes, but I think the media should also be neutral and publicize graft-implicated politicians from other parties," Didi said.