B

ribery convict Paskah Suzetta says the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) must be able to find the missing link between those who accepted bribes and the ones that offered them in the 2004 Central Bank’s vote buying case.

Such a development, he said, will smooth efforts to find the prime actor behind the case.

“The missing link lies in the traveler’s checks,” Paskah told reporters after a six-hour questioning session at the KPK headquarters on Friday. “Without finding the missing link, KPK will have difficulty in naming Miranda as a suspect.”

Paskah, the former National Development Planning minister who began serving a 16-month prison sentence in mid-June this year, referred to Miranda Goeltom, who was implicated in the case for her election as central bank’s senior deputy governor in 2004.

As many as 480 traveler’s checks, worth Rp 24 billion in total, were distributed to at least 33 House members overseeing finance affairs. The bribes disbursed by Nunun Nurbaeti to help Miranda win the position.

The KPK has sent at least dozens of those lawmakers — mostly from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party, as well as from the United Development Party (PPP) — to jail, yet, it has not named any of the bribe payers or the mastermind behind the scheme.

The Anti-corruption Court has revealed that Bank Artha Graha purchased the checks from Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) in 2004 using PT First Mujur Plantation and Industry’s name.

First Mujur finance director Budi Santoso once testified that he did not understand how the Rp 24 billion had got into lawmakers’ pockets as the funds were supposed to be used by president director Hidayat Lukman to pay Ferry Yan for the purchase of an oil palm plantation in North Sumatra.

However the chain of evidence broke in 2007 as Ferry died.

KPK has summoned several people from Artha Graha and First Mujur, as well as the BII. KPK said it was currently investigating them as the checks were bought by Artha Graha.

Nunun held her tongue after her questioning session on Friday, refusing to reveal where she got the traveler’s checks from. Her lawyer previously dropped hints regarding Miranda’s role.

“I don’t know [who owned the checks],” Nunun said as she answered reporters following her five-hour questioning session on Friday at the KPK headquarters.

She later smiled, refusing to divulge where she got the checks.

The KPK has questioned Nunun three times following her arrest in Bangkok. The wife of former National Police deputy chief, Nunun was on the run for months.

It was not the first time for Nunun to withhold the name of the mastermind in the high-profile case. However, KPK chief Abraham Samad recently claimed her previous questioning has shed some light on who is the prime motivator behind the case.

Nunun also declined to explain the alleged meeting between Miranda and four lawmakers in House Commission IX at the time of the bribery case, saying it was better to ask the KPK instead.

Mulyaharja, one of Nunun’s lawyers who had previously blamed Miranda, also backed down on Friday, saying that it was better for them to keep silent. Yet, he denied he was afraid. He said, in his defense, that it was an ongoing investigation.

Previously, Mulyaharja said that Nunun once introduced Miranda to Udju Djuhaeri from the Indonesian Military/National Police faction, Endin A.J. Soefihara from the PPP, Hamka Yandhu and Paskah from the Golkar Party upon Miranda’s request.

The introduction to the four lawmakers for the 1999 to 2004 term, he added, was to “gain support from them to win the selection.”

Udju, Endin and Hamka were among the first four former lawmakers sent to prison in May 2010 for their roles in the case. The three, whose sentences range from fifteen months to two-and-a-half-years in prison, were released on parole in April 2011.

The three acted as distributors to deal out the checks from Nunun — through Arie Malangjudo — directly to their colleagues in their respective factions. Paskah was a leader of Golkar members in House Commission IX at that time.