The much-anticipated trial of former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin has taken a new twist that may complicate the case after a key witness unveiled the role of powerful figures within the ruling party in corruption involving the young politician.
In her testimony on Nazaruddin, Mindo Rosalina Manulang, who is also a defendant in the case, identified Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum as the so-called "big boss" and deputy head of the House of Representatives' budget committee Mirwan Amir, also a party member, as the "big chief" behind the case, which centers on alleged bribery paid by PT Duta Graha Indah to win a Rp 191.7 billion (US$21 million) tender to build an athletes' village for the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang last year.
Nazaruddin himself confirmed the alleged role of the two party leaders, as well as making allegations against another party member, beauty pageant-turned-politician Angelina Sondakh, whose implication in the high-profile case recently sparked controversy due to her suspected love affair with a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator.
Other top figures from the Democratic Party named in Monday's hearing were Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng, a party advisor, and his brother Choel Mallarangeng, whose political consultancy firm Fox Indonesia helped party founder Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono win the last two presidential elections.
Suspicion had been rife, even before Nazaruddin's trial began, that the case had something to do with Anas' surprise victory in the race for party chairmanship in 2010. Nazaruddin, who supported Anas' election, is implicated in a total of 35 corruption cases, which the KPK said involved Rp 6 trillion in state money.
From his overseas hideouts Nazaruddin had targeted Anas as the person responsible for the alleged corruption, which Anas has denied. The KPK has grilled a number of Democratic Party members, including Andi, M. Nasir, Mahyudin NS and Angelina, in connection with the graft cases implicating Nazaruddin, but never Anas.
Most recently, KPK chief Abraham Samad hinted at questioning all of the Democratic Party politicians and other figures named in Monday's trial. The KPK, under the new leadership, will need support from the whole nation to uphold the law against all citizens, regardless of their socioeconomic or political status. The quiz is imperative not merely because everybody is equal before the law but also, for their own sake, to provide legal certainty to the people in question whether they are clean or not.
Testimonies are of course not considered solid evidence, but they can lead the KPK to the much-needed proof to ensnare those involved in the politically connected corruption case.
Needless to say, the KPK will be facing political pressure in its quest to unravel all the players behind the graft case. The anti-graft commission should go beyond its naivete and perceive the ongoing trial of Nazaruddin as a piece of a big puzzle of corruption linked to powerbrokers in the country. There is justification for this suspicion as in Sir John Dalberg-Acton's misquoted but proven remark: Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It's time for the KPK to focus on big cases like the Nazaruddin saga, not simply because they implicate a ruling party but to remind those big bosses and big chiefs they cannot rely on their power to escape justice any more.