Oei Eng Goan – Veteran actor Pong Harjatmo unveiled a banner reading "Arrest Nunun or Else Busyro Resigns" during a protest at the office of the Corruption Eradication Commission on Friday, venting the frustration over the inability of the KPK and its chairman, Busyro Muqoddas, to arrest graft suspect Nunun Nurbaeti since she fled overseas in March 2010.
Nunun is a suspect in a major bribery scandal over the 2004 selection of Miranda Goeltom as a senior deputy governor at Bank Indonesia. After a lengthy investigation into the scandal, the antigraft commission, known as the KPK, accused Nunun of distributing traveler's checks to dozens of lawmakers sitting on the House's finance commission to ensure Miranda's appointment.
Of the 30 former and active lawmakers on the commission, 28 were convicted of receiving checks of between Rp 350 million and Rp 1.4 billion ($40,000 and $152,000) each. The two others died before they could be tried.
The KPK issued a travel ban on Nunun, but it was too late as she had already flown to Singapore for what her husband, Adang Daradjatun, a former deputy chief of the National Police and currently a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker, claimed was medical treatment. According to Adang and her private doctor, she suffered from dementia.
As always happens with irregularities involving high-profile suspects, simple cases of bribery can become obscure and investigations into the scandals are carried out in slow motion, prompting the public to believe that law enforcers are less than serious about upholding justice when the culprits are powerful people.
The Nunun case presents many mysteries. How could a loving husband allow his wife, suffering from such a serious illness, travel abroad unaccompanied? Why does he not know his wife's whereabouts? If he does, why hasn't the KPK questioned him? Isn't protecting a fugitive, even one's wife, a criminal offense under Indonesian law? If she is too ill to walk around, as her husband has claimed she is, what about the photographs showing her shopping at malls in Singapore and Thailand?
National Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo and KPK officials said that the authenticity of the photographs, released by Tempointeraktif.com, had yet to be verified, but Roy Suryo, an expert in digital and multimedia technology and a Democratic Party lawmaker, told Vivanews.com that the woman in the picture was Nunun but that it was taken some time ago.
It is true that the government has made a number of efforts to bring Nunun back to the country. The KPK had asked the assistance of Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and sent a mission to Thailand earlier this year, but to no avail, as Nunun reportedly had left the countries and according to former Industry Minister Fahmi Idris was in Cambodia. Fahmi even told journalists that Adang and the couple's children regularly visited Nunun while she was still in Singapore. His statement was not well received by the KPK and Adang said it was untrue.
The France-based Interpol has also issued a "red notice" – the closest thing to an international arrest warrant – following a request by the KPK and the National Police. The Justice and Human Rights Ministry revoked Nunun's passport last May. Despite all this, the fugitive's whereabouts remain a mystery.
That a sick woman, wanted by Interpol, could travel to several countries undetected is surely a sign that she is backed by a powerful person or persons with robust financial means. Busyro himself admitted that there were large powers protecting Nunun. "With these powers being beyond our reach, we have been unable to bring her back," he told the media last week.
The public, however, saw Busyro's words as little more than an excuse for the antigraft body's lack of courage to solve the case as it may implicate top government officials. Many people believe that the KPK leadership is torn about breaking open a major criminal case that could involve their friends or former superiors.
Many others believe that the government needs to demonstrate its political will to solve the Nunun case and demonstrate to people that no one is above the law in this country. Otherwise, we will hear people declare cynically: "What? Nunun's case. Well, it's NATO."
This has nothing to do with the defense pact of Western nations, but rather: "No Action, Talk Only."
[Oei Eng Goan, a former literature lecturer at National University (UNAS) in Jakarta, is a freelance journalist.]