A child of public pressure, a face-saving concoction. A delay-tactic solution, without any real political conviction.
A clever contraption, cooling pu-blic outcry.
For a President to take credit without the blame if conditions go awry.
Ask the victims of the May 1998 riot.
Query family and friends of slain rights activist Munir.
Each "blessed" with their own fact-finding team, without justice as its theme.
Raised hopes, failed expectations.
The incongruity between fact-finding teams and a politically charged justice system - one servicing not the other.
The first in 1998, the second in 2004. Each providing extensive proof, but none resulting in credible justice or effective prosecution.
Today a new fact-finding team formed by a presidential decree begins work on sorting out the "legal mess" surrounding the arrest of two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
A quick response without being responsive to the actual cause of the uproar: Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah's detention is a case full of dubious circumstances.
The stench of palace spin choking a public already nauseated by the case's foul smell of deceit.
"Let us lower the *public* temperature," pleaded team chairman Adnan Buyung Nasution on Monday, signaling the intent of the fact finding team's design.
Parallel patterns of past wriggling. Similar methods employed to free the President from public hearing.
Was it not the President's legal team, perhaps Adnan among them, who suggested just over a month ago that a Team of Five be formed to find nominees to fill the KPK's acting deputy posts after Bibit and Chandra's forced suspension?
A team formed only after certain individuals - sensing a miscarriage of justice in the case - rejected offers to assume the vacated posts despite being directly approached by the President's aides.
Suggestions they would ultimately get palace backing to be appointed permanently still not luring the individuals in question to replace two men whom they perceived as being grossly mistreated.
"If they can do this to Bibit and Chandra, what is there to stop them from doing it to me or anybody else," one of the candidates approached told The Jakarta Post recently.
A team designed to ensure the President saved face after the private rejections of the initial candidates and, one to remove culpability should questions eventually arise over the final appointments.
The convenience of the new fact-finding team builds further curiosity.
Was it really a late Sunday epiphany brought forward during a discussion with the President by several national figures - University of Indonesia law professor Hikmahanto Juwana, Islamic State University rector Komarudin Hidayat, Transparency International secretary-general Teten Masduki, Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan - or were a number of them prepped ahead of the meeting?
How rapid the process of a Sunday afternoon chitchat is translated into government action. Something rare for an administration who's President is known over the past five years for his deliberative and dawdling style.
Ultimately, from the Team of Five to the new Fact Finding Team, its all a bit d*j* vu.
The President has put himself in the corner. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. But he has only himself to blame for creating a climate permissive of fostering suspected injustice.
If the fact-finding team in its report confirms suspicions of foul play, can the President act on it by intervening in the justice system?
Unlikely. Bold initiatives uncharacteristic for a man who likes to work "inside the box".
The end game open to a curious set of circumstances.
A new attorney general, a crestfallen police chief, a disgraced detective. A sham case in trial, a belated verdict of not guilty.
And all this while two men are still in jail.
Delayed justice, still injustice.
The KPK is no Cinderella, it may yet have a skeleton in the closet, but it is clearly being treated like the stepchild of the law enforcement family.
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