N

ational Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri has apologized to the family of the late Muslim scholar Nurcholis "Cak Nur" Madjid and retracted his statement associating the latter with a former minister allegedly involved in a graft case.

Observers quickly linked the retraction with allegedly unfounded accusations made by the police against two leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto.

Yudi Latif of the Nurcholis Madjid Society (NMS) said Sunday that the police chief, accompanied by police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Sukarna and police adviser Bachtiar Aly, made the apology during a visit to the Nurcholis family residence in South Jakarta on Friday evening.

"The National Police chief has expressed his apologies for mistakenly linking the family of Nurcholis Madjid with problems handled *by the police*, and for the inconvenience created by his statement," Yudi said.

"He has retracted his statement, and acknowledged that it was a mistake originating from information received before the hearing," he added, referring to the hearing between the police and the House of Representatives' Commission II on law and security earlier this month.

Bambang told the hearing that the KPK had investigated a bribery case involving a person known by the initials MK (believed to be former forestry minister Malam Sambat Kaban) due to the latter's supposed "emotional attachment" with Chandra, one of two KPK deputies currently charged with abuse of power and bribery by the police.

He alleged that MK had received Rp 17.5 billion (US$1.8 million) in bribes from telecommunications equipment provider PT Masaro Radiokom, which is owned by fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo.

In the widely-broadcast hearing with the legislators, Bambang said Chandra was under a moral obligation to MK for the latter's contribution as a matchmaker between Chandra and his former wife, Nadia Madjid, a daughter of Nurcholis.

Chandra and Nadia got married in 1994 and later divorced in 2001.

Bambang's statement immediately sparked strong protests from Nurcholis' supporters, who demanded he apologize and retract this.

Yudi said the police chief did not seem to be well informed on the relationship between Chandra and Nurcholis' family, which had led to his "wrong" statement.

Nurcholis's wife Omi Komaria Madjid, flew directly from the US to deal with the case, and said the family did not want this to be politicized.

"We don't want the problem to widen," Omi was quoted as saying by Antara.

Anti-graft activist Teten Masduki from Transparency International Indonesia said this was evidence of poor information gathering capacity and an indicator of the level of police professionalism in investigations against Chandra and Bibit.

If the police chief had apologized and retracted to the Nurcholis family, then he should be able to do the same with Chandra and Bibit.