Syifa Alifa, Jakarta – Former secretary of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry, Muhammad Said Didu, has strongly criticized the verdict against Thomas Trikasih Lembong or Tom Lembong, former Trade Minister (2015-2016), in the sugar import case.
Said asserted that the ruling is not only legally flawed but also dangerous for Indonesian policymakers.
"There are three interesting things I observed. What was considered a state loss was actually a loss for private parties collaborating with SOEs. Imagine the high-speed train project; will [former president] Jokowi be implicated? Because it causes state losses due to collaboration with private parties," Said Didu said after attending the sentencing hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court on Friday, July 18, 2025.
He questioned the judges' logic in equating private gains from SOE collaborations with state losses. "[Projects of] tolls, airports, and others are considered state losses because of collaboration. GoTo collaborated with Telkom. If GoTo also benefited from Telkom, is it considered a state loss?" he posited.
According to Said Didu, if such legal logic prevails, then all state officials who make decisions involving collaboration with the private sector are potentially subject to criminal charges.
"So get ready, ministers will be in even more trouble. Can you imagine [what can happen to] Directors of the SOE Ministry, for how many thousands of years they will be punished because of that collaboration loss," said the former Secretary of SOE Ministry for the 2005-2010 period.
Furthermore, he highlighted that the case implicating Tom Lembong fell outside the authority of his ministerial position at the time. "For example, the collaboration between SOE and the private sector was not within Tom Lembong's authority. There is no authority for the Trade Minister to say that. That's a corporate action; why blame it on him?"
The third point Said emphasized was the basis of the assignment in the meeting minutes, which he deemed irrelevant for bringing Tom to court.
He reiterated that this verdict could have systemic impacts. "I repeat, three strange things: private gains are considered state losses when collaborating with SOE. This means the entire private sector collaborating with SOE and making a profit is considered a state loss. Secondly, it was not Tom Lembong's authority to regulate collaboration with the private sector, so why blame Tom Lembong? That's the authority of the minister in SOE, not the Trade Minister; it's a corporate action. And third, there are other decision assignments that would not typically lead to a case, but are blamed if you don't execute it," he concluded.
Tom Lembong was found guilty of violating Article 2 paragraph (1) of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption, as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001, in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) point 1 of the Criminal Code.
The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced the former Trade Minister to four years and six months in prison and a fine of Rp750 million, or an additional six-month imprisonment if the fine is not paid.