You’ll never work alone
The fans of English soccer giant Liverpool FC always chant the club’s hymn, “You’ll never walk alone”, in a show of their confidence in their beloved club either in victory or agony.
So does the Democratic Party, which announced the dismissal of its treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, on Monday after weeks of mounting pressure on the ruling party. The young businessman, known as a close confidante of party leader Anas Urbaningrum, however, will keep his post as a House of Representatives lawmaker, pending a legal process he may face.
There was no explanation as to why Nazaruddin was discharged from his party post, except for the fact that the move was decided by the party’s council of ethics to save the party from embarrassment.
While the measure was foreseeable after Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD alleged that Nazaruddin had attempted to give a gratuity worth S$120,000 (US$96,100) to court secretary-general Janedjri M Gaffar in September 2010, the Democratic Party’s half-hearted action against Nazaruddin comes as no big surprise.
Under its chief patron, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the party has built an image as an anticorruption force and worked hard to prove it. The efforts have also been translated in the Yudhoyono administration’s fight against graft.
During his term in office, Indonesia has seen dozens of state officials, including politicians, sent to jail for corruption. This has given an impression that everybody is equal before the law under Yudhoyono, which was one of the reasons why the public kept their faith in him in the 2009 presidential election.
But the case of Nazaruddin will prove otherwise if Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party fail to facilitate an investigation into the lawmaker in connection with the gratuity offer and another case related to a tender to build an athletes’ dormitory for the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra.
Mahfud disclosed the gratuity offer only after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had tried in vain to implicate Nazaruddin in the dormitory case, in which the KPK has arrested Youth and Sports Ministry secretary general Wafid Muharram and two businesspeople. One of the businesspeople caught in the act, Mindo Rosalina Manulang, claimed that her boss, Nazaruddin, had received Rp 25 billion (US$2.93 million) in fees from the construction project, which cost Rp 191 billion. Later on, Mindo retracted her account and replaced her lawyer, Kamaruddin Simanjuntak, who said he possessed recordings of her former client’s statements that could drag Nazaruddin into the bribery case.
That the Democratic Party failed to suspend if not dismiss Nazaruddin as a lawmaker in order to allow him to focus on the legal process has sent the wrong signal that the party, at least its elites, reluctantly supported the war on corruption.
It was not the first time that the party raised many eyebrows when it came to commitment to the fight against graft. In 2008, the party let its politician, As’ad Syam, former Muaro Jambi regent, serve his term as a House lawmaker, although the Supreme Court had convicted him of graft. He then escaped justice until the police arrested him after a year of hiding.
Unless tougher measures are handed down to him, Nazaruddin will think his party will never let him walk alone in the wake of the graft allegations. Then suspicion will be rife that he may not work alone.
So does the Democratic Party, which announced the dismissal of its treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, on Monday after weeks of mounting pressure on the ruling party. The young businessman, known as a close confidante of party leader Anas Urbaningrum, however, will keep his post as a House of Representatives lawmaker, pending a legal process he may face.
There was no explanation as to why Nazaruddin was discharged from his party post, except for the fact that the move was decided by the party’s council of ethics to save the party from embarrassment.
While the measure was foreseeable after Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD alleged that Nazaruddin had attempted to give a gratuity worth S$120,000 (US$96,100) to court secretary-general Janedjri M Gaffar in September 2010, the Democratic Party’s half-hearted action against Nazaruddin comes as no big surprise.
Under its chief patron, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the party has built an image as an anticorruption force and worked hard to prove it. The efforts have also been translated in the Yudhoyono administration’s fight against graft.
During his term in office, Indonesia has seen dozens of state officials, including politicians, sent to jail for corruption. This has given an impression that everybody is equal before the law under Yudhoyono, which was one of the reasons why the public kept their faith in him in the 2009 presidential election.
But the case of Nazaruddin will prove otherwise if Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party fail to facilitate an investigation into the lawmaker in connection with the gratuity offer and another case related to a tender to build an athletes’ dormitory for the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra.
Mahfud disclosed the gratuity offer only after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had tried in vain to implicate Nazaruddin in the dormitory case, in which the KPK has arrested Youth and Sports Ministry secretary general Wafid Muharram and two businesspeople. One of the businesspeople caught in the act, Mindo Rosalina Manulang, claimed that her boss, Nazaruddin, had received Rp 25 billion (US$2.93 million) in fees from the construction project, which cost Rp 191 billion. Later on, Mindo retracted her account and replaced her lawyer, Kamaruddin Simanjuntak, who said he possessed recordings of her former client’s statements that could drag Nazaruddin into the bribery case.
That the Democratic Party failed to suspend if not dismiss Nazaruddin as a lawmaker in order to allow him to focus on the legal process has sent the wrong signal that the party, at least its elites, reluctantly supported the war on corruption.
It was not the first time that the party raised many eyebrows when it came to commitment to the fight against graft. In 2008, the party let its politician, As’ad Syam, former Muaro Jambi regent, serve his term as a House lawmaker, although the Supreme Court had convicted him of graft. He then escaped justice until the police arrested him after a year of hiding.
Unless tougher measures are handed down to him, Nazaruddin will think his party will never let him walk alone in the wake of the graft allegations. Then suspicion will be rife that he may not work alone.
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