Despite widespread public skepticism, the House of Representatives insists it was serious about carrying out a proposed political investigation into the poor handling of the tax mafia case surrounding graft convicted and former tax official Gayus H. Tambunan.
Deputy House speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said he and two of the 114 legislators who sponsored a recently submitted political petition for the inquiry — Anis Matta of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Pramono Anung Wibowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) — and the House leadership agreed to bring the petition to a plenary session soon.
“The petition signatories are from all parties except the Democratic Party,” he said Friday.
Asked whether business tycoon and Golkar chairman Aburizal “Ical” Bakrie would be one of those investigated by the committee, Priyo said Ical had indicated his willingness to testify before the House.
Of the 43 large firms whose tax appeals were handled by Gayus, three of them, including PT Arutmin and PT Kaltim Prima Coal, were subsidiaries of Ical’s Bakrie Holding Group.
Ical denied any involvement in the tax mafia and allowed police to question any of the executives from the three companies. He also filed complaints against six electronic and print media outlets to the National Press Council for what he said were biased reports on his alleged meeting with Gayus in Bali.
Priyo said the investigation by the House would not be a platform for political trading, adding that the committee was expected to uncover all motives behind the police’s lax investigation into the tax and justice mafias.
“The political investigation has nothing to do with an expected Cabinet reshuffle and the recent arrest of Golkar, PDI-P and United Development Party [PPP] politicians allegedly involved in a graft case surrounding the election of Miranda S. Goeltom as senior Bank Indonesia deputy governor in 2004,” he said.
The inquiry committee sponsors, mostly from the House’s Commission III on law, said they would question Gayus, his former lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo and members of the Judicial Mafia Taskforce, whom Gayus claimed orchestrated his prosecution.
Political analysts expressed skepticism about the House’s intent, saying that the history of similar committees — such as the Bank Century inquiry — led to the belief that this inquiry would also end in a political trade-off among parties and the President.
Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi said the results of the investigation would depend on the state of political parties in improving their bargaining position with the President.
“Parties whose politicians were recently arrested for graft cases or who are not well represented in the Cabinet will seek impeachment,” he said.
Centre for Strategic International Studies senior researcher J. Kristiadi concurred, but predicted the process would not end in political impeachment.
Ical had indicated his willingness to testify before the House of Representatives.
