Asia Times: Indonesia: A murky plot thickens again


	March 13, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Indonesia: A murky plot thickens again
By Richel Langit

JAKARTA - The detention of Golkar party chairman Akbar Tandjung last Thursday has garnered more suspicion than praise.

Suspicions are rife that Tandjung's detention, which came as members of the House of Representatives (DPR) were holding a plenary meeting to decide whether or not it would set up an inquiry team to investigate allegations of corruption against Tandjung, was a political ploy devised to save both him and his Golkar party.

There was no doubt that lawmakers, disappointed with the way the Attorney General's Office had handled the high-profile financial scandal, were close to deciding to form the inquiry team to probe Tandjung, a move the beleaguered Golkar chairman and his party have long wanted to avoid because of its possible massively damaging and humiliating ramifications.

The last time the House of Representatives set up an investigation team was in 2000 when it probed mercurial former president Abdurrahman Wahid. That process ended up with Wahid being impeached.

Two big factions in the House - President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Vice President Hamzah Haz's Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) - have long made it clear that they would back away from their demand to set up a House inquiry team only if the Attorney General's Office demonstrated clear seriousness in handling the corruption case of Tandjung, a suspect in a Rp54.6 billion (US$5.5 million) financial scandal involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

Unfortunately, up until last Thursday, the Attorney General's Office had made little headway in the case. Although Tandjung was declared a suspect in early January, he was not questioned until early February, thanks to strong public pressure. In mid-February, he was allowed to perform a hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a privilege not enjoyed by other suspects in the scandal. Public anger came to a boiling point when the Attorney General's Office detained a co-suspect in the scandal, Rahardi Ramelan, the former Bulog chairman who disbursed the funds to Tandjung upon the instruction of former president B J Habibie.

With Tandjung now in detention, more surprises are expected to surface. PDI Perjuangan is likely to now oppose any attempts to set up an inquiry team to probe Tandjung on the ground that the legal process against him is already working.

The legal process against the beleaguered Golkar chairman is also likely to be accelerated. The Attorney General's office has already said that Tandjung's dossiers will be completed and submitted to the court before the end of the month. But it is likely that the dossiers will be submitted to the court before Monday so that PDI Perjuangan and the PPP have all the reasons they need to drop their demand for the House to investigate Tandjung.

Detaining Tandjung was seen as the only viable option by both PDI Perjuangan and PPP to beat back demands by anti-Golkar legislators in the House to form the inquiry team. It could also greatly improve Megawati's image in her faltering attempts to wipe out the longstanding rampant corruption in the country.

Megawati, who assumed the national leadership after members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest legislative body, impeached Wahid over corruption allegations, has come under strong criticism for not doing enough to prosecute alleged big-time corrupters who are mostly either Golkar politicians, or family members and cronies of authoritarian leader - former president Suharto. For most activists and university students, Golkar is the embodiment of corruption, collusion and nepotism practices, which are widely blamed for plunging the country's economy into deep crisis. And so, prosecution against any Golkar politicians, including Tandjung, is always greeted with joy.

But, Megawati knows full well that she owes her presidential seat to Golkar and could not survive without Golkar's full backing. Golkar played an important role in bringing Megawati into the presidential post last July. Prosecuting Golkar politicians, especially party chief Tandjung, would not only constitute a betrayal but also create political instability that could put an end to Megawati's still-young government, especially if Golkar carries out its threat to withdraw political backing to her coalition government. More than that, Golkar shares the same nationalistic ideology as PDI Perjuangan.

Megawati herself admitted two weeks earlier that her government could not survive without the support of people at large and especially of big political parties in the House. Tandjung's Golkar has 120 members, second only after Megawati's PDI Perjuangan which holds 153 seats.

And so, when the news of Tandjung's detention broke last Thursday, analysts were wondering if Megawati was playing with fire when she allowed the Attorney General's Office to detain him. It so happened that his detention came just days after a number of PDI Perjuangan legislators met with the attorney general.

"I see Akbar Tandjung's detention as a political engineering by Megawati's PDI Perjuangan to thwart moves to set up a House inquiry team," said Alfitra Salamm, a political analyst associated with the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI). "That is a political reality since PDI Perjuangan needs Golkar's support badly," he added.

In the meantime, Winfried Sumatupang, one of the suspects in the high-profile financial scandal, has withdrawn all his previous statements on the use of the funds and returned Rp32.5 billion of the Rp40 billion he received from fellow suspect Dadang Sukandar, who heads a little-known foundation Tandjung alleged had been chosen to distribute the food packages in 1999. Winfried also promised to return the remaining Rp7.5 billion by the end of this month.

The move is clearly designed to put the blame on one person - in this case on Winfried and to save Tandjung and co-suspect Sukandar. The three had insisted earlier that the Rp40 billion funds were already spent to buy food packages distributed to people affected most by economic crisis in 1999.

By returning the money, Winfried is taking all the blame on his shoulders. It wouldn't be at all surprising if he claims later on that he had cheated both Tandjung and Dadang, and as such, Tandjung will be portrayed as a victim of deception. And, if he were eventually brought to court, Tandjung would argue that he had been cheated and would likely be freed from all charges.

((c)2002 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact ads@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)