O

em>Operations of the ad hoc Presidential Judicial Mafia Task Force are slated to end at the end of this year with no sign that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will extend its service. The Jakarta Post’s Rendi A. Witular examines the track record of the task force, which adopted bold measures in confronting corrupt law enforcement officers and powerful figures. Here are the stories.

Play on: Head of the Presidential Judicial Mafia Task Force Kuntoro Mangkusubroto (second right) is accompanied by task force members Denny Indrayana (right), Mas Achmad Santosa (second left) and Yunus Husein at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta in this file photo taken on April 4, 2010. Anticorruption activists have filed concerns over the task force’s possible termination, arguing that increased judicial efforts by the task force are still necessary to accelerate antigraft measures, as Indonesia remains one of the world’s most corrupt countries. JP/Wendra AjistyatamaFrom advocating on behalf of a defenseless worker being framed by police in a case allegedly initiated by a powerful business empire, to highlighting tax fraud allegedly committed by companies linked to Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, the task force has taken open shots at the seemingly untouchable corruptors within powerful elites.

But two years since the force began its work, which caused restless nights for many politicians and corrupt law enforcement officers, the task force’s term is about to end, ironically, amid pressure from parties under Yudhoyono’s very own Democratic Party coalition camp.

“I have no idea whether the President will extend the task force’s term,” said task force head Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who is also chairman of the Presidential Working Unit for Development, Monitoring and Control (UKP4), late Tuesday.

Yudhoyono formed the task force in late December 2009, after mounting protests demanded an acceleration of the sluggish reform movement in the law enforcement and judicial systems.

The task force has no enforcement authority, with its functions limited to advising, monitoring and evaluating reform and supervision measures by all law enforcement institutions.

Should an institution fail to apply the recommended measures, the task force helps by revising the measures, improving the institution’s human resource capacity and, if necessary, launching a string of crackdowns.

A few weeks after its inception, the task force launched a crackdown upon the luxurious cell of Artalyta Suryani at Pondok Bambu Women’s Detention Center in East Jakarta.

Artalyta, who is also a friend of first lady Ani Yudhoyono, is a wealthy, high-profile convict who, at that time, had been sentenced to five years for bribing a prosecutor.

Around a week after the crackdown, the task force took a shot at the notoriously graft-ridden police force over allegations of accepting orders from a businessman to frame one of his former employees.

The case revolved around a possible omission by three mid-ranking officers who left Susandhi “Aan” Sukatma to be brutally abused by his superiors at the Artha Graha Group headquarters in Jakarta in December 2009.

Susandhi is a former employee of PT Maritim Timur Jaya, a fishery subsidiary of Artha Graha Group — a business conglomerate controlled by politically wired tycoon Tomy Winata.

After the beating, Susandhi was arrested by police for the possession of an ecstasy pill. Susandhi, however, insists he was set up on drug trafficking charges.

The Supreme Court acquitted him in June of all charges, citing he was a victim of police framing and urged the police to investigate the officers responsible for the misconduct.

The Susandhi case increased the hopes among low-income, defenseless people of gaining justice against police framing and extortion.

While the hype was still strong, the task force eventually became bogged down in the middle of this year.

It was a tax case revolving around Bakrie-linked companies that deeply troubled the task force.

The Golkar Party insisted Yudhoyono dissolve the task force following claims by a notorious graft convict that it had engineered a case against Aburizal.

Golkar, the second-largest party in the government coalition, and often at odds with the ruling party over various issues, believed graft convict Gayus H. Tambunan was telling the truth following his guilty verdict earlier this year, when he said the task force was politicizing his case to attack Aburizal.

Gayus earlier admitted he had received around Rp 28 billion (US$3.1 million) from Bakrie-linked companies — PT Bumi Resources, PT Arutmin and PT Kaltim Prima Coal — for undervaluing their tax bills.

“Not only does the task force emasculate the function of existing law enforcement institutions, it also leaves room for certain actors to politicize a case,” said Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham recently.

Amid the attack, the task force stayed below the radar during the past six months, concentrating primarily on monitoring progress of institutional reform within the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.

“We’re not laying low due to political pressure. We’ve received no pressure and never felt any. Our main task is to reform the system, not to launch crackdowns along the way,” said Kuntoro, who is also regarded as an icon of integrity.

Under Kuntoro’s leadership, are task force members Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana; the former interim deputy chairman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Mas Achmad Santosa; former Financial Transactions and Analysis Centre chairman Yunus Husein; Deputy Attorney General Darmono; and former Aceh Police chief, Insp. Gen. Herman Effendi.

Denny, Mas Achmad and Yunus are widely known as the “three musketeers” who drive the course of the task force and lead crackdown operations in the field.

Anticorruption activists have filed concerns over the task force’s possible termination, arguing that increased judicial efforts by the task force are still necessary to accelerate antigraft measures, as Indonesia remains one of the world’s most corrupt countries.

The business community has repeatedly claimed that corruption within judicial institutions is so ingrained that it discourages foreign investors from entering the country and local entrepreneurs from starting up new businesses.

Foreign businessmen have also lamented Indonesia’s untouchable upper-class, who often commandeer the judicial system, creating profound legal uncertainties when conducting business in the country.

But if Yudhoyono finally hoists the white flag during the last days of this year by refusing to issue an extension to the antigraft crusaders, the untouchables are likely to rule supreme.