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KPK says lack of evidence hinders naming bribe payers
It’s simple logic: Bribery requires a bribe payer and a bribee
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t’s simple logic: Bribery requires a bribe payer and a bribee. But the nation’s top antigraft body has yet to name a single bribe payer in the high-profile bribery case that has implicated 29 politicians.
Last week the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was applauded after it detained 19 politicians accused of taking bribes to support the election of Miranda S. Goeltom as Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor in 2004.
This week the public has blasted the KPK for dragging its feet in naming who paid off the legislators.
The high-profile case has raised the ire of politicians who have said the detentions were aimed at political parties that were critical of the government.
The KPK is focusing on the middleman in the case, whom many alleged was Nunun Nurbaeti, a.k.a “the cashier”, who allegedly distributed Rp 24 billion (US$2.66 million) in traveler’s checks to the legislators who voted for Miranda.
Nunun is the wife of a legislator from the House of Representatives’ Commission III, then National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Adang Daradjatun.
The trials of four convicted former legislators in connection with the scandal have implicated Miranda, Nunun, and Arie Malangjudo, another middleman under Nunun. But the KPK said it lacked sufficient evidence to name the trio as suspects in the case.
The KPK lacked evidence and could not use facts ascertained in court as they were only testimony, KPK spokesman Johan Budi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Johan said that the KPK was still working on the case. “Rest assured that KPK is currently targeting the bribe payers.”
“It’s on the way,” Johan said, “we need at least two pieces of hard evidence to name the next suspect.”
Johan declined to say if the next suspects to be named might be Nunun and Miranda. “Who ever it is, if we manage to obtain evidence we will charge them for sure.”
Nunun’s whereabouts continue to remain a mystery. She was reportedly suffering from severe illness and had to be treated abroad. However Tempo magazine has reported that Nunun was still busy with her hobbies of travelling and shopping.
Indonesian Judicial Watch Society (Mappi) chairman Hasril Hertanto disagreed with Johan, saying that court facts constituted hard evidence.
“The KPK should have already named Nunun as a suspect based on court testimony. If they work too slowly, evidence may disappear,” he said, adding that the antigraft body was risking its reputation by failing to meet the public’s expectation that it would solve the case in its entirety.
Politicians have called on the KPK to name Miranda a suspect in the case, saying that its failure to do so would only confirm their suspicions that the arrest of their fellow legislators was politically motivated.
The Corruption Court has imprisoned four former legislators in connection with the case: Hamka Yandhu from the Golkar Party, Dudhie Makmun Murod from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Udju Djuhaeri from the military/police faction and Endin A.J. Soefihara from the United Development Party.
University of Indonesia political analyst Arbi Sanit urged the KPK to act more quickly to find evidence to name bribe payers. “I agree with the KPK: without evidence they will look silly in naming the bribe payers,” he said, adding that this would surely tarnish KPK’s image.
On Monday, KPK questioned three convicts implicated in the case about their testimony against three other suspects: Agus Chondro Priyotno, Max Moein and Poltak Sitorus. The KPK would soon detain five additional suspects in the case, according to Johan, including Henky Baramuli, Bobi Suhadirman, Willem Tutuarima and Rusman Toruan who previously claimed to be ill, as well as Budiningsih who was not in Jakarta at the time the arrest occurred. A sixth legislator has already been imprisoned on separate corruption allegations.
