Wa Ode Nurhayati’s budget committee saga turns ugly

A member of the House of Representatives’ budget committee, Wa Ode Nurhayati, who is now a graft suspect, accused Golkar politician Nudirman Munir on Tuesday of having targeted her for extortion during his tenure as a member of the House’s ethics council.

Nurhayati, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that a staffer working for Nudirman approached her in July and “offered a deal” that would allow her to escape the council.

“A woman claiming to be Nudirman’s aide came to my house early one morning. Everybody at my house was aware of her presence. She told me I should meet with Nudirman if I wanted to be free from the ethics council summons,” Nurhayati said.

Nurhayati also said that the proposed deal involved the payment of cash.

“The staffer also said that Muhammad Nazaruddin managed to escape ethics council questioning after he paid Rp 2 billion [US$220,000]. I took this to mean that I should also pay,” she said, referring to Democratic Party lawmaker Nazaruddin, who is now a graft defendant.

Nurhayati said her older sister, Wa Ode Nurzainab, had met with Nudirman to confirm about the cash payment. “And Nudirman confirmed it. My sister recorded her conversation with Nudirman,” she said.

The ethics council has attempted to summon Nurhayati for questioning since she went public on national television in May, detailing the wheeling and dealing inside the House budget committee. She dubbed the committee “a haven for budget mafia”, which the council considered an insult.

Nudirman accused Nurhayati of attempting to “direct public attention away from her case”.

“She should not make such a slanderous statement. Show me which staffer you are talking about and I will surely fire him or her,” Nudirman said.

Nudirman was dismissed from the ethics council in September, but he denied the dismissal had anything to do with the alleged extortion attempt.

Lawmaker Ruhut Sitompul of the Democratic Party said that PAN should recall Nurhayati from the House. “Just as we did to Nazaruddin,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

PAN’s secretary-general, Taufik Kurniawan, said it was too early to take action against Nurhayati.
“I don’t want start an argument in the [glare of the] media. We have our own mechanisms,” he said.

Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) politician Muhammad Misbakhun also played down Ruhut’s statement. “He should be more consistent. Two Democratic Party lawmakers, Djufri and Amrun Daulay, who have been named corruption suspects for months, are still members of the House,” he said.

The Corruption Eradiaction Commission (KPK) named Nurhayati a suspect on Friday for allegedly receiving gratuities linked to the disbursement of regional infrastructure development acceleration program funds (PPID).

House observers bemoaned the fact that a whistle-blower in a corruption case was now a suspect in the case.

“It is ironic. Nurhayati was actually disclosing alleged illicit practices surrounding the PPID funds. She was the one who made the suggestion that many legislators asked for bribes from local leaders to help local administrations obtain infrastructure project funding,” said Sebastian Salang from the Indonesian Legislative Watch (Formappi).

The KPK said it pursued the report to follow up on a report from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) regarding 21 suspicious transactions implicating members of the House’s budget committee.

Nurhayati has filed a request with the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) to give her protection. PAN has also appointed nine lawyers to form a defense team for Nurhayati.