The Girl behind the PKS Scandal

One of the reasons for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to arrest former chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Luthfi Hasan Iskaq last Wednesday, was their investigations that lead to the arrest of several people including a 19 years old girl i.e. Maharani Suciyono the day before.

Maharani was arrested with Luthfi's assistant i.e Ahmad Fathanah, has five wives (here), in a bedroom of Le Meridien Hotel, Central Jakarta. At that time, they were both naked, and the KPK found Rp 10 Million in her hand-bag.

Maharani is a student at a university located not faraway from the People's Representatives Council  in Central Jakarta, and she live in the same neighborhood as Luthfi (read here).

After she was released from KPK detention, Maharani and her lawyer held a press conference at Hotel Nalendra, East Jakarta, on Tuesday, during which she denied that she and Ahmad Fathanah were inside the hotel's room when they were caught by the KPK. She said that they both met at the hotel's basement and coffee shop, during which Ahmad Fathanah gave her Rp 10 Million.

Maharani told reporters that she knew Ahmad through a waiter at a coffee in Senayan City one day before the arrest. The waiter told her that Ahmad want to meet her and gave her the latter's mobile phone number (read here and here).

According to the KPK, the Rp 10 Million received by Maharani, was part of the Rp 1 Billion Ahmad received from Meat Importer as a down payment of Rp 40 Billion to be given to Luthfi who will arrange Meat Import quota with the authorities.

Photo : Courtesy of Tribune News

Sexual Gratification in Indonesia

On 12 June 2012, former Director of Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau Ng Boon Gay, faced two charges of obtaining Sexual Gratification from the Senior Sales Manager at Oracle Corporation Singapore Pte. on December 2011 as an inducement to help further Oracle's business interests. 

According to Reuters, Ng also faces two other charges of obtaining Sexual Gratification from the same individual when she was an employee of Hitachi Data Systems Ltd. 

The charges against Ng come one week after the former head of Singapore's Civil Defense Force Peter Lim faced 10 Sexual Gratification charges involving three different women working for IT firms in the city state.                                                                                                
Unlike Singapore, where the laws stipulated that Sexual Gratification is a Crime, the laws in Indonesia do not explicitly mention Sexual Gratification as a Corruption Crime (Bribery).

The website of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) quoted the Anti Corruption Law No. 31/ 1999 Article 12B and Law No. 20/2001 : "Any Gratification to a Civil Servant of State Official is regarded as Bribery, if it is connected to his/her position and contradictory to obligation or duty, as follows ....."

Further, the Explanation of said Art. 12 B : "Gratification: is widely defined as any acts of giving money, goods/things, discount, commission, interest free loan, travelling ticket, accommodation, package tour, free medical treatment, and other facility in Indonesia or abroad using manual or electronic facility.

Actually Sexual Gratification if not something strange in Indonesia. The Indonesian Corruption Watch was quoted by Okezone as saying that Sexual Gratification has long existed and often been used in Indonesia.

While the Chief of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD was quoted by Inilah.com as saying that Sexual Gratification may have stronger impact than Money Gratification, therefore he support inclusion of Sexual Gratification in the Anti Corruption Law.  

Although our Law has not regard Sexual Gratification as a Corruption Crime (Bribery), I hope that Marketing people, especially the ladies, would not use Sex as part of  their efforts to win the hearts and the minds of their customers.

Last but not least, I also hope that Sexual Gratification would soon be regarded as a Corruption Crime (Bribery) that is by the amendment of the Anti Corruption Law.

Photo : Courtesy of Photo Search

The Arrest of Angie

After he was arrested in Colombia several months ago, Nazaruddin told the Commission for Eradication of Corruption (KPK) that there were some top officials in President SBY's Democrat Party who were involved with him in the alleged Athlete Housing Bribery and other Corruption cases.

Among the names mentioned were Democrat Party Chief Anas Urbaningrum and Deputy Secretary General Angelina Sondakh a.k.a Angie the Miss Indonesia 2001.

Based on this revelation, politicians and the news media urged KPK to immediately investigations on those persons. So, on 3 February 2012, KPK announced Angie as a Suspect based the Anti-Corruption Law.

After that KPK focused on prosecuting Nazaruddin to the Court, and did not seem to take further actions on Angie and the others, which angered politicians.

Last Friday, 27 April 2012, the KPK finally arrested Angie. Suara Karya quoted KPK Spokesman Johan Budi as saying that Angie is arrested for alleged corruption in the Ministry of Education, and she will remain in its custody for 20 days.

Kompas reported that Angie's lawyer Teuku Nasrullah protested the arrest because KPK only issued Investigation Order after the arrest, while actually it should be done before it named Angie as a Suspect more than 2 months ago.

I hope that the arrest of Angie is purely based on legal grounds as stated by KPK, and not merely because of pressures from the news media and politicians.

The Latest Fight Against Corruption

During the trial of Nunun Nurbaeti at the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court last Monday, the Prosecutors of the Commission for Eradication of Corruption (KPK) demanded the Court to punish her to four years in Jail, pay Rp 200 Million Fine, and Confiscate the amount of Rp 1 Billion.

Although her lawyers protested, but Nunun looked so happy, this is obvious because the jail term was one year lighter than the maximum ruled by the Anti-Corruption Law. Moreover, the Prosecutor did not mention her effort to avoid legal charges by leaving the country for two and half years.

The 61 years old wife of former Deputy Chief of Police Adang Darajatun is on trial for allegedly bribing 28 members of the House of Representatives with Rp 480 Billion in travelers checks. The checks were given after the members voted for Miranda Gultom in an election for Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Indonesia in 2004.

This is the second time that a Defendant was punished lightly after the Corruption Court sentenced former Treasurer of President SBY's Democrat Party i.e. Nazaruddin to four years and ten months in jail and a fine of Rp 200 Million for receiving Bribe of Rp 4.6 Billion in the Athlete Housing case last Friday.

This Court's sentence was much lighter than demanded by the KPK Prosecutor i.e. seven years in jail and fine of Rp 300 Million.

Beside the above crime, Nazaruddin must still face other legal charges such as the alleged money laundering in the purchase of Garuda Shares, the Hambalang case.

The above mentioned Prosecutors's Demand in Nunun's case and Court Verdict in Nazaruddin's case and other previous Court Verdicts (please click here) show that we are far from winning the fight against Corruption.

We can only hope that in the future the KPK would always do their very best to prepare every Corruption cases properly, obtain strong and convincing evidences before they brought them to the Court, and demand heavier punishments.

I would prefer that KPK's Prosecutor would always demand very heavy penalty, including Life or even Death Sentence, that way the Court can be expected to consider passing heavier Sentences.

Singapore is a Safe Place to Hide

On 23 May, the Democrat Party dismissed M. Nazaruddin as it's General Treasurer for his alleged role in a Bribery case surrounding a South East Asian Games construction project and an attempt to bribe the Secretary General of of the Constitutional Court Janedri Gaffar with Sing $ 120,000.00.

On 24 May, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) asked the Immigration Office to forbid Nazaruddin from traveling outside Indonesia so as to facilitate investigation on the allegations against him.
Unfortunately, Nazarrudin has departed for Singapore the night before immediately after he was dismissed by his party.

KPK also targeted Nunun Nurbaeti. wife of former Vice Chief of the National Police now a member of the House of Representatives of the Welfare Justice Party (PKS) Adang Darajatun, who has recently been named a Suspect in the Bribery of members of the House of Representatives during the election of Miranda Gultom as the Deputy Chairperson of the Bank Indonesia.

Until now Nunun cannot be questioned because she was reported to be suffering Amnesia, can't remember what happened to her in the past, and before she was named a Suspect Nunun went to Singapore for medical treatment.

Before that, there were other people wanted by the National Police who ran away to Singapore. One of them was ex Tax man Gayus Tambunan who was investigated by the Police for allegations of corruption. Luckily the National Police was able to persuade Gayus to return to Jakarta.

Beside that, there was also Anggodo Wijaya who was found guilty of corruption by the Court in Jakarta, but cannot be jailed because he ran away to Singapore before the authorities arrested him.

The fact that Indonesian and Singapore do not have extradition treaty has made it impossible for Indonesian law enforcement agencies to ask Singapore to turn anyone who broke the laws in Indonesia if they go and hide in Singapore.

However, I hope that  Indonesia and Singapore would soon sign an extradition treaty, especially that both are members of the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) which in 2015 will become the ASEAN Community.

The Democrat Party and Nazaruddin

The ruling Democrat Party last night announced the dismissal of Muhammad Nazaruddin from his position as the party's Treasurer.

The party's senior official Amir Syamsuddin told the media that the decision was made in response to the growing rumors in society about Nazaruddin's involvement in several criminal allegations including an attempt to bribe the Secretary General of the Constitutional Court and receiving bribe from the contractor of the South East Asia Games 2011 Athletes Complex in Palembang, South Sumatera.  

He said that the allegations against Nazaruddin have grown so wide and might have great impact on the party as well as Nazaruddin himself. The dismissal would avoid the party from bad publicity related to this case, and would enable Nazaruddin to concentrate on defending himself against those allegations.

The party will leave it all to the law enforcement agencies to process this case, but request that any legal actions should be based on the principle of presumption of innocence.

In spite of the above, Nazarrudin shall maintain his status as a member of the House of Representatives.

Considering that until his dismissal last night Nazaruddin was the Treasurer of the Democrat Party whose duties includes getting, maintaining and spending money for and on behalf of the party, therefore it would not be easy to prove that he is the only one responsible for all the bad things alleged against him

KPK and the Politicians

Last Friday, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested 19 current and former members of the House of Representatives over alleged bribery related to the appointment Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia in 2004.

The arrest angered political parties of those politicians, Golkar Party, the PPP and PDIP, who alleged that KPK has not been fair in their actions. They said that KPK should take action on recent cases like the Bank Century bailout.

They further alleged that the arrest was a consession made by KPK to the Attorney General in exchange for the release of two of its Vice Chairmen i.e. Bibit and Chandra from Criminal Prosecution. 

In retaliation to KPK's action, last Monday the House of Representatives Legal Commission canceled a meeting with KPK, because some of their members refused to meet with Bibit and Chandra who they claimed are still not cleared from Criminal Prosecutions.
Later on, they banned both gentlemen from attending future meetings with the House.  

The above mentioned actions of the members of the House of Representatives reminded me of the statement made by former President Abdurrahman Wahid who alleged that their behaviours were like Kindergarten kids.

Photo : Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Indonesian & Australian central banks scandal

The Coruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will start inquiry on allegation that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has given US$ 1.3 million in Bribe to senior officers of Bank Indonesia (BI) to win a note printing tender in 1999.

The Jakarta Globe (below) quoted KPK Deputy Chief M. Yassin as saying that  this inquiry is based on an undisclosed public complaint received on 25 May.

Considering that this case was disclosed by an Australian newspaper The Age 11 years after the bribery took place, I wonder whether there are any other unknown foul play between said central banks of both countries. Hmmmm .... I'll keep my fingers crossed.

KPK Begins Inquiry Into Bank Indonesia Australian Bribery Case

Armed with a public complaint, the Corruption Eradication Commission announced it would initiate an investigation into allegations that senior central bank officials had received $1.3 million in bribes over a banknote-printing tender with an Australian company in 1999.

Deputy Chairman Muhammad Jasin said on Friday that the complaint officially enabled the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK, to conduct the probe.

“Regarding allegations of bribery at Bank Indonesia, the KPK received a report that was registered at the KPK Directorate of Public Complaints on May 25,” Jasin said. “The report is now being examined by the public complaints team as we gather additional information.”

Jasin added that the commission would not disclose who filed the complaint or the contents of the report.

“We are also discussing the possibilities of collaborating with our Australian counterparts on the matter,” Jasin said.

The case surfaced after Melbourne-based newspaper The Age reported on Tuesday that two senior BI officials, identified only as Mr. S and Mr. M, had allegedly received bribes from Indonesian businessman Radius Christanto.

Radius reportedly paid $1.3 million in bribes to award the $50 million contracts to print 500 million Rp 100,000 banknotes to two Australian firms he was representing — Securency International and Note Printing Australia.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the case was under the agency’s jurisdiction. “As long as it involves public officials and there had been a misappropriation of state funds, the KPK will investigate.”

Muhammad Assegaf, lawyer of former Bank Indonesia Governor Syahril Sabirin, confirmed that the alleged bribery occurred during his client’s tenure. “However Syahril was not aware of the bribery because he was not involved in the technical aspect of the procurement or tender process,” Assegaf said.

The central bank also pledged to conduct an internal investigation into the matter. Deputy Governor Budi Rochadi said four former BI officials directly linked to the tender had been questioned but refused to disclose names.

“The officials involved in the procurement had mostly retired but some are still active. We will question everyone from the staffers to the directorial levels,” he said, as quoted by state-run Antara news agency.

The Age reported that a confidential fax, sent from Christanto to the two firms on July 1, 1999, explicitly referred to large bribes to Bank Indonesia.

The paper added that Christanto’s correspondencewith the Australian firms also revealed collusion among BI officials, Chris­tanto and the firms’ executives to mark up the bids for the rupiah contract.

The Reserve Bank of Australia, the holding company of both firms said it took the matter “very seriously” and condemned corrupt behavior of any kind, but could not comment further given the ongoing Australian Federal Police investigation.

In a separate statement, Securency said it had referred the bribery allegations to Australian police after it became aware of them a year ago.

Bribery in Bank Indonesia

Since Indonesia became a democratic country in 1998, almost everything that ever happened here are freely reported by the media.

So many corruption cases and foul play in the management of the country have been exposed, the latest being the mysterious flow of 6.7 Trillion Rupiah to bailout of Bank Century, and the Trillion Rupiah Tax fraud.

While the above cases are still being investigated by the law enforcement agencies, yesterday The Jakarta Post (below) reported that officials of the central bank i.e. Bank Indonesia, have received US$ 1.3 million bribes from a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia for helping the latter in winning a contract in 1999.

Considering that this is a very serious allegations, I hope that the law enforcement agencies in both countries would check whether or not the news report is true.

Former BI officials took bribes from RBA: Reports
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/26/2010 10:13 AM | National

Former Bank Indonesia officials received US$1.3 million in bribes from Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) subsidiaries to help the latter win a contract and manipulate future tenders in 1999, a newspaper reported.

Melbourne’s The Age cited confidential faxes from a Jakarta businessman to executives at Securency International and Note Printing  Australia (NPA) referring to “our friends” and “unofficial payments" and “commissions”. One fax, dated July 1, 1999, specifically stipulates the paying of S1.3 million to two Bank Indonesia officials.

According to The Age, Radius Christianto, who represented the RBA firms Securency and NPA in Indonesia between 1999 and 2006, was to be paid US3.65 million for his services.
In his faxes, Christianto refers to “Mr. S” and “Mr. M”, which the newspaper believes were senior Bank Indonesia officials who played key roles in awarding the RBA firms the contract for printing 500 million Rp 100,000 banknotes.

The revelation of this possible corruption came when a former Securency employee said recently that he was asked to pay bribes and procure prostitutes for foreign central bank officials.

Currently, the Australian Federal Police are investigating Securency for paying more than $A20 million in bribes through middlemen to win currency printing contracts in Vietnam, Nigeria and Malaysia between 2003 and 2006.

Christanto’s correspondence also revealed collusion between Bank Indonesia officials, Christanto and RBA banknote executives to mark up the Securency and NPA bid for the rupiah banknote contract by 20 percent with an agreement that it would then be reduced to a 10 per cent mark-up.

Bank Indonesia said it would allow the law enforcers to investigate the alleged bribery. “Let the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] and the Attorney General’s Office conduct an investigation,” he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

“The KPK has not received any official report on the case,” KPK spokesman Johan Budi said Tuesday. He added that the commission had only just learned of the allegation from Jakarta journalists, so had not had the opportunity to discuss a possible investigation.

“We will process any information on possible corruption as long as it involves state officials,” Johan said.

“The KPK does not work retroactively, therefore we can’t process any case that occurred before August 1999,” Johan said, adding that the KPK was regulated by the 1999 Corruption Eradication Law, which came into effect in August that year.
The law defines corruption as well as the process for its eradication.

“The KPK also refers to the Criminal Code, which stipulates that a person cannot be charged or tried for any crime occurring before the issuance of any law covering such crimes,” Johan said.

“However, we can investigate these allegations if the case has consequences occurring after 1999.”
 It is possible that someone might come forward with information on the case because of the media coverage,” he said, emphasizing that ”we except anonymous reports”. (ipa)

Crimes by Lawmakers

Since the year 2008, our news media have been reporting about the arrests of many members of the Parliament (DPR) for charges of receiving Bribes that caused great financial loss to the state.

According to Okezone , from January 2008 until early March 2009, at least seven lawmakers have been arrested i.e Al Amin Nur Nasution, Sarjan Tahir, Yusuf E. Faishal, Bulyan Royan, Abdul Hadi Jamal, Hamka Yamdu, and Antony Zeidra Abidin. These arrests have caused Sebastian Salang, an NGO activist, to suspect that there is a relationship between the crimes commited by those lawmakers and the preparation for general election next April.

According to The Jakarta Post, Abdul Hadi Djamal was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last Monday, carrying with him US$ 90 thousand and Rp 54 million. Beside him, KPK arrested Darmawati Dahore, offical of the Department of Transportation, and Hontjo Kurniawan, businessman. An unnamed source said that Hontjo gave Rp 2 billion to Abdul, and Rp 600 million to Darmawati.
In a press conference last Tuesday, KPK Chairman Antasari Ashar suspected that the money is related to the development of airport and seaport in Eastern Indonesia. He said that the three suspects shall be charged with violating the Anti Corruption Law Articles 5 & 11 regarding Gratuities and Article 12(a) & 12(b) regarding Bribery, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The series of arrests of those lawmakers brings mixed feelings for me. On the one hand I am very sad that people who are supposed to make law have violated those laws instead, but on the other hand I am glad because they will face legal proceedings thus pay for their crimes. I hope that the general elections on 9 April will result a lot much better lawmakers for our country.