The week in review: Corruption threatens ‘reformasi’
The alleged corruption surrounding the development of SEA Games facility in Palembang, South Sumatra has triggered a storm within the ruling Democratic Party, which has two senior politicians set in the eye of the storm.
In a desperate bid for damage control, the Democratic Party has formed an internal investigation into allegations that two of its politicians, treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin and lawmaker Angelina Sondakh, had received kickbacks from the Rp 197 billion project.
The result is predictable: a clean bill for both politicians. But who would believe in such an “investigation”, especially when the general public knows very well that political parties seeking funds through brokerage is standard operating procedure.
The scandal exploded last month after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) caught “red-handed” Sports Ministry secretary Wafid Muharram, SEA Games contractor Muhammad El Idris and broker Mindo Rosalina Manulang.
KPK said El Idris and Rosalina were handing Rp 3.2 billion to Wafid as a “finder’s fee” for the lucrative project. In the subsequent questioning, Rosalina reportedly told investigators she acted on behalf of her “boss” — Nazaruddin, who allegedly received Rp 25 billion for finding El Idris the project.
Nazaruddin is an owner of PT Anak Negeri, a brokerage company where Rosalina was marketing manager. Rosalina also reportedly told her then-lawyer about Angelina (and an obscure Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker named Wayan Koster) seeking “success fees” for House members in charge of overseeing sports.
When the issue spun out of control, Rosalina retracted her confessions to the KPK while Nazaruddin and Democratic Party politicians are out to convince the public that the party has had no hand in the SEA Games scandal.
As the party’s ultimate leader, Yudhoyono personally assured the public that he and the Democratic Party would not intervene in the legal proceedings that may eventually implicate Nazaruddin and Angelina.
The SEA Games kickback scandal deals a big blow not only to Democratic Party, but also to Yudhoyono, who famously promised to personally lead the fight against corruption.
Let’s hope the President has been sincere this time about his non-intervention promise. In the past, he would express concern about many state problems and ordered his aides to solve them, but nothing happened.
***
Last week’s Merpati aircraft crash in the shallow of Kaimana Gulf that killed all 27 people on board in West Papua has again highlighted concern about Indonesia’s flight safety standards, which may have been compromised with corruption.
The ill-fated aircraft is one of the three Chinese-made MA60 models already in the Marpati fleet, which serves outlying areas — a business venture that no other major commercial airlines are interested in, for obvious reasons.
Doubts about the 60-seat vessel’s safety standard have arisen from official acknowledgment that the aircraft, built by Xi’an Aircraft Company Limited, only has Chinese certification and is yet to be internationally accredited by other aviation authorities, such as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Indonesian officials want us to believe that the ill-fated aircraft was flight-worthy and that FAA certification is a must only if it operates in the US.
The accident and the safety debate that has followed has not changed the government’s mind in its decision to spend more than US$230 million to buy a total of 15 MA60 aircraft.
The lack of transparency in the purchase, which was initially a business-to-business arrangement, but later became a government-to-government deal, has given rise to suspicion that the scheme is mired with corruption.
The state enterprise ministry approved only $225 million in 2006 to buy 15 aircraft, but in 2007, the National Development Planning Ministry raised the budget to $232 million.
However, a 2008 report from the asset management company PT PPA claimed that the actual price of an MA60 aircraft was only between $11 million and $12.5 million — way below the $15 million the government has claimed; adding credence to suspicions of marked-up prices.
Yudhoyono has asked all relevant officials to explain the purchase to the skeptical public.
The observance of the May 1998 tragedy has become a routine ritual, with street demonstrations and visits to the graves of the four Trisakti Univesity students that were slain on May 12, 1998, while attending a rally demanding political reform and the resignation of president Soeharto.
The shooting incident triggered widespread street protests that culminated in the infamous anti-Chinese riots in many major cities across Indonesia, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and forced Soeharto to step down.
Thirteen years on, the tragedy, which also saw killings, rape and widespread destruction of the property and assets of Chinese-Indonesian families, has remained a mystery because the government has refused to investigate while most of the alleged conspirators are still holding sway in politics.
The National Commission of Human Rights has submitted its reports on the tragedy to the government, but only to be ignored.
The House of Representatives issued a resolution in 2009, asking the President to form an ad hoc tribunal on rights abuses, find the missing activists, provide compensation for the victims’ relatives and sign the international convention on forced disappearance.
Obviously, no state institution is powerful and persistent enough to make the Yudhoyono administration find resolution for the tragedy.
In a desperate bid for damage control, the Democratic Party has formed an internal investigation into allegations that two of its politicians, treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin and lawmaker Angelina Sondakh, had received kickbacks from the Rp 197 billion project.
The result is predictable: a clean bill for both politicians. But who would believe in such an “investigation”, especially when the general public knows very well that political parties seeking funds through brokerage is standard operating procedure.
The scandal exploded last month after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) caught “red-handed” Sports Ministry secretary Wafid Muharram, SEA Games contractor Muhammad El Idris and broker Mindo Rosalina Manulang.
KPK said El Idris and Rosalina were handing Rp 3.2 billion to Wafid as a “finder’s fee” for the lucrative project. In the subsequent questioning, Rosalina reportedly told investigators she acted on behalf of her “boss” — Nazaruddin, who allegedly received Rp 25 billion for finding El Idris the project.
Nazaruddin is an owner of PT Anak Negeri, a brokerage company where Rosalina was marketing manager. Rosalina also reportedly told her then-lawyer about Angelina (and an obscure Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker named Wayan Koster) seeking “success fees” for House members in charge of overseeing sports.
When the issue spun out of control, Rosalina retracted her confessions to the KPK while Nazaruddin and Democratic Party politicians are out to convince the public that the party has had no hand in the SEA Games scandal.
As the party’s ultimate leader, Yudhoyono personally assured the public that he and the Democratic Party would not intervene in the legal proceedings that may eventually implicate Nazaruddin and Angelina.
The SEA Games kickback scandal deals a big blow not only to Democratic Party, but also to Yudhoyono, who famously promised to personally lead the fight against corruption.
Let’s hope the President has been sincere this time about his non-intervention promise. In the past, he would express concern about many state problems and ordered his aides to solve them, but nothing happened.
***
Last week’s Merpati aircraft crash in the shallow of Kaimana Gulf that killed all 27 people on board in West Papua has again highlighted concern about Indonesia’s flight safety standards, which may have been compromised with corruption.
The ill-fated aircraft is one of the three Chinese-made MA60 models already in the Marpati fleet, which serves outlying areas — a business venture that no other major commercial airlines are interested in, for obvious reasons.
Doubts about the 60-seat vessel’s safety standard have arisen from official acknowledgment that the aircraft, built by Xi’an Aircraft Company Limited, only has Chinese certification and is yet to be internationally accredited by other aviation authorities, such as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Indonesian officials want us to believe that the ill-fated aircraft was flight-worthy and that FAA certification is a must only if it operates in the US.
The accident and the safety debate that has followed has not changed the government’s mind in its decision to spend more than US$230 million to buy a total of 15 MA60 aircraft.
The lack of transparency in the purchase, which was initially a business-to-business arrangement, but later became a government-to-government deal, has given rise to suspicion that the scheme is mired with corruption.
The state enterprise ministry approved only $225 million in 2006 to buy 15 aircraft, but in 2007, the National Development Planning Ministry raised the budget to $232 million.
However, a 2008 report from the asset management company PT PPA claimed that the actual price of an MA60 aircraft was only between $11 million and $12.5 million — way below the $15 million the government has claimed; adding credence to suspicions of marked-up prices.
Yudhoyono has asked all relevant officials to explain the purchase to the skeptical public.
The observance of the May 1998 tragedy has become a routine ritual, with street demonstrations and visits to the graves of the four Trisakti Univesity students that were slain on May 12, 1998, while attending a rally demanding political reform and the resignation of president Soeharto.
The shooting incident triggered widespread street protests that culminated in the infamous anti-Chinese riots in many major cities across Indonesia, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and forced Soeharto to step down.
Thirteen years on, the tragedy, which also saw killings, rape and widespread destruction of the property and assets of Chinese-Indonesian families, has remained a mystery because the government has refused to investigate while most of the alleged conspirators are still holding sway in politics.
The National Commission of Human Rights has submitted its reports on the tragedy to the government, but only to be ignored.
The House of Representatives issued a resolution in 2009, asking the President to form an ad hoc tribunal on rights abuses, find the missing activists, provide compensation for the victims’ relatives and sign the international convention on forced disappearance.
Obviously, no state institution is powerful and persistent enough to make the Yudhoyono administration find resolution for the tragedy.
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