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House honors board probing sex scandals
Reports of sex scandals involving House of Representatives legislators have been widespread, but the legislative body’s honors board will now handle the alleged cases with care while respecting the politicians’ privacy
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eports of sex scandals involving House of Representatives legislators have been widespread, but the legislative body’s honors board will now handle the alleged cases with care while respecting the politicians’ privacy.
One of the board’s deputy chief Nudirman Munir said the reports were being examined.
“There are reports of affairs submitted to us. However, because those kind of cases are related to private matters, then we have to carefully investigate them,” Nudirman of the Golkar Party told reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
He said up to 10 cases were being intensively investigated, including an allegation of sexual harassment said to be committed by a Democratic Party legislator during the party’s national congress in Bandung in late May.
“We are going to visit the Bandung Police precinct to gather more information related to the case. Until we have solid and accurate evidence, we will not publicly reveal details of these scandals, because they may affect the lives of the legislators’ families,” Nudirman said.
Nudirman said most of the cases were reported by family members of the politicians, whom he would not identify.
“That is all I can say, I will never, ever, mention any name for now,” Nudirman said.
He added that a number of cases had been reported by persons claiming to be the out-of-marriage partners of legislators, who Nudirman suspected were driven motives such as extortion.
“For example, we found out that some of the claimed out-of-marriage partners wanted the legislators to buy them houses in exchange for their silence,” he added.
In the past, numerous legislators had been implicated in sex scandals taped in videos and recorded by photos.
A sex scandal involving Golkar legislator Yahya Zaini in 2006 was revealed after a sex video featuring him and dangdut singer Maria Eva circulated on the Internet. Yahya then resigned as a legislator.
The other case involved Max Moein from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who was depicted naked with his secretary in pictures circulating on the Internet.
The House board of ethics, under the leadership of Max’s PDI-P colleague, Gayus Lumbuun, dismissed the disgraced legislator after finding him guilty of sexual harassment.
At the start of the current House session, two Democratic Party legislators were implicated in sex scandals but they survived due to insufficient evidence.
Responding to the recent spate of allegations, Deputy House speaker Priyo Budi Santoso warned against public discussion of the issue.
“There is no clause within our standing orders that forbids legislators from love affairs. Legislators are human and can make mistakes. This kind of issue should not be publicly exposed,” Priyo of Golkar said Friday.
