The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) continued its investigations into a high-profile alleged bribery case surrounding the election of former Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor Miranda S. Goeltom in 2004, questioning lawmaker M.S. Hidayat on Tuesday.
"I was questioned for around one-and-a-half hours as a witness for a suspect, Hamka Yandhu, because I was also a member of Commission IX *overseeing banking and financial affairs* in 2004," Hidayat told reporters at the KPK building on Tuesday.
Hidayat, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said he was the last of 13 Golkar Party members to be grilled by the KPK in the case.
"I was asked whether I had attended the fit-and-proper test *for the Bank of Indonesia position* and I said no, I was out of town at the time."
"When asked whether I knew anything about the case, I told them I had found out about it in the newspaper," Hidayat said.
The bribery case was exposed to the public after legislator Agus Tjondro Prayitno admitted to having received Rp 500 million (US$52,952) in traveler's checks from fellow legislator Emir Moeis, a few days after the House approved Miranda to fill the BI senior deputy governor position, in 2004.
Miranda gained 41 of 54 votes in the election organized by members of House Commission IX, in June 2004.
However, Hidayat said he knew nothing about the distribution of traveler's checks because he had not attended the election meeting.
"The voting coincided with my election as chairman of Kadin, so I did not attend nor give my vote at that time," he said.
The KPK has named four legislators, who were members of the House between 1999 and 2004, as suspects in the case. The suspects were Hamka Yandhu of the Golkar Party, Endin J. Soefihara of the United Development Party (PPP), Dudhie Makmun Murod of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) member Udju Juhaeri from the Indonesian Military.
According to a report from the Financial Transaction Report Analysis Center (PPATK), 400 traveler's checks were allegedly related to the BI senior deputy governor election but only 10 were cashed by legislators themselves. Previously, the KPK also summoned Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban and State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta as witnesses in the case. The two were also members of House Commission IX at the time of the BI deputy election.
However, only Kaban fulfilled the summons last month, while Paskah asked the KPK to reschedule his questioning session because of a state duty he had to undertake.
Aside from the alleged bribery case, Hamka was also convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for receiving part of Rp 31.5 billion ($3.33 million) in funds from the central bank's Indonesian Development Banking Foundation (YPPI), in 2003.
The money had been disbursed by Hamka and his colleague, Anthony Zeidra Abidin, also from Golkar, who received the money from BI senior official Rusli Simanjuntak in an attempt to persuade the lawmakers to approve BI's liquidity support settlement (BLBI) as well as accelerating an amendment to the BI law.
