Febriamy Hutapea – With the Southeast Asian Games providing the stage for a number of major graft scandals that have entangled Democratic Party members, 2011 was a year to forget for the ruling party.

In late October, businessman Daniel Sinambela was convicted and sentenced to 16 months in prison for embezzling Rp 25 billion ($2.7 million) from Muhammad Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer. The case revolved around Nazaruddin and Daniel's bid to supply 500,000 tons of coal to Indonesia Power in August last year.

Daniel is the husband of former "Indonesian Idol" winner Joy Tobing, who sang a song written by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the opening of the SEA Games in November.

Prosecutors argued that Daniel had embezzled the Rp 25 billion from Executive Money Changer, a company under the direction of Nazaruddin, to finance the project.

The defense, however, said Nazaruddin had siphoned off the money, distributing 50 percent to the Democratic Party, 15 percent to the coal consortium and keeping 35 percent for himself. For some observers, the case pulled back the curtain on the dirty dealings of some Democrats to finance the party and line their own pockets.

Another case that was a major blow-by-association to the Democrats was that of Wafid Muharram, a senior Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry official overseeing the SEA Games.

Wafid, who worked under Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng, a senior Democrat but not a suspect in the case, was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on suspicion of accepting Rp 3.2 billion in checks in connection with the construction of the athletes' village for the SEA Games in Palembang – Earlier this month, he was sentenced to three years.

Forget the slogans

"Shake your head and say 'no.' Ignore the seduction and say 'no.' " That was one of the slogans the Democrats used to attract voters in the 2009 elections. Now it has become more of a punchline.

For a while it seemed that the Democrats were living a blessed existence, or had some protection, as they avoided being connected to graft cases while members of other parties found themselves in court. Dozens of members of the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) were arrested in graft cases, while the Democrats seemed to skate by.

But the SEA Games-linked graft cases provided rivals with sufficient ammunition to target the ruling party. Adnan Topan Husodo, the deputy coordinator of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said, referring mainly to Nazaruddin: "Democrats lost badly this year."

The former treasurer made plenty of headlines with his escape from the country and his apprehension in Colombia in August.

Saiful Mujani, from the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said the Democrats' alleged involvement in corruption cases had provided a boost to rival parties. "There's nothing so sexy in trying to attack the Democrats as playing up a corruption case," he said.

Securing the future?

The appointment of Amir Syamsuddin as the justice and human rights minister and Denny Indrayana as his deputy led to talk that they had been chose to "take care" of corruption scandals involving Democrats. Amir was the secretary of the Democrats' ethics board and Denny was a member of the president's legal staff.

Activists and politicians have criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's decision to put two people from his inner circle in charge of the Justice Ministry.

Pramono Anung, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives from the opposition PDI-P, said Amir and Denny could have been appointed to look after the Democrats' interests. "We'll see how exactly our legal enforcement runs. I just hope they will not only work for the interests of the rulers, but also for the people," he said.

Questions have been raised about the track record of Amir, a former lawyer who used to work for Aulia Pohan, a Yudhoyono in-law and former central bank governor who was jailed for graft.

Other big parties like Golkar have also criticized Yudhoyono for being selective when it came to enforcing the law. A senior PDI-P lawmaker, Trimedya Panjaitan, said the law too often seemed to side with the Democrats and that discrimination was practiced by the police, prosecutors and the KPK.

Citing a graft case involving PDI-P members in Bekasi and Subang, West Java, who were quickly charged, Trimedya said a similar case involving a mayor from the Democratic Party in Medan had gone nowhere.

Root of the problem

Emerson Yuntho of ICW said Indonesia's weak legal system was the reason why corrupters often got away with their crimes. "They feel they will be protected and defended by the party," he said, referring to members of the Democratic Party.

A recent survey by the Reform Institute suggested that only 17 percent of those polled who voted for the Democrats in the 2009 elections were satisfied with the party's performance, with the remainder saying that they were disappointed. Other surveys have indicated that the Democrats will have a very difficult time repeating their election success in 2014.

As a founder of the Democrats, Yudhoyono has succeeded in turning it into the nation's biggest party. But many analysts say corruption is threatening to undo all of the party's gains, as well as the growth prospects for the country.

Jeffrey Winters, a professor of political economy at Northwestern University in the United States, said that establishing a strong and truly independent legal system was a necessity. "So that the powerful bend to the law rather than the reverse," he told the Jakarta Globe in an e-mail interview.

Corruption remains one of the root causes of the country's problems and a major bottleneck for progress. We will have to wait and see whether we can defeat it and make Indonesia a better place in 2012.