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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">United: (From left to right) ICW researcher Febri Diansyah, former Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center chief (PPATK) Yunus Husein, and Indonesian Transparency Community (MTI) Coordinator Yunarto Wijaya ready for a discussion at Indonesian Corruption Watch’s office in South Jakarta on Friday. Yunus said that the Corruption Eradication Commission should look at the policies of graft suspect Miranda S. Goeltom when she was at the central bank to determine who might be behind the Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal. Antara/Andhika WahyuAs the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) searches for the benefactors of the 2004 central bank’s vote-buying case, a coalition of antigraft activists has urged investigators to also find out who benefitted from former senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Miranda Goeltom’s policies while she was in office.

Legal experts, observers and antigraft activists, including former Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) chief Yunus Husein, disclosed on Friday the results of their public examination of the bribery case of former lawmaker Dudhie Makmun Murod and called on the KPK to scrutinize the flow of money revealed during Dudhie’s trial in 2010.

They alleged that Miranda, who is thought to have been elected as a result of the bribery, was not the only beneficiary and that the KPK should delve into Miranda’s policies and decisions during her tenure as central bank senior deputy governor between 2004 and 2009.

“There were indications that Miranda’s victory benefited those in the banking industry,” Yunus told a press conference.

He asserted that Miranda’s position was very strategic, as being Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor for banking monitoring would allow her to “possess valuable information for the banks”.

The bribery scandal has also allegedly implicated Bank Artha Graha, which is owned by businessman Tomy Winata.

The case centers on the distribution of 480 traveler’s checks worth Rp 24 billion (US$2.69 million) to at least 33 lawmakers at the House’s finance commission. The checks were distributed by suspect and alleged go-between Nunun Nurbaeti after the lawmakers held a fit and proper test for Miranda and two other candidates for the post in 2004.

Yunus, who is also a former BI legal director, said many were willing to sponsor the election of central bank leaders because they had their own interest in BI policies.

He said that BI leaders decided policies on open market operations, foreign exchange and the BI rate.

“Imagine if they knew such information first,” he added.

Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst from think tank Charta Politika, said the bribery was an extraordinary case. “Obviously, if we study the political plot of the case, this is about hijacking authorities and buying policies,” he said.

Jamil Mubarok from the Indonesia Transparency Society (MTI) slammed KPK prosecutors for not doing their best in building the case. He also criticized the Jakarta Corruption Court judges for not pushing for more information from witnesses, especially those that testified during Dudhie’s trial.

“The KPK must present them again at Miranda’s trial and find the link between the checks and the benefactor,” he said. “It is simply a case of follow the money.”

The court has revealed that Artha Graha purchased the checks from Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) in 2004 by borrowing the name of PT First Mujur Plantation and Industry.

First Mujur finance director Budi Santoso has testified that he did not understand how the Rp 24 billion checks got into the pockets of lawmakers as they were supposed to be used by president director Hidayat Lukman to pay Ferry Yan for the purchase of a small-scale oil palm plantation in North Sumatra.

According to Budi, Hidayat told him that the purchase was canceled just after he delivered the checks to Ferry. Ferry paid back Rp 13 billion in cash for the checks, but he had not paid off the remaining debt by the time he died in 2007.

No one knows how the checks wound up in the hands of the convicted lawmakers other than Hidayat and Ferry, said Yunus.

So far, Hidayat has managed to escape KPK questioning. KPK prosecutors have also yet to take him to court.

“As the one who knows about the plantation purchase, he must be brought before the court,” Yunus said.

He later questioned why Hidayat had paid for the plantation company using traveler’s checks.

“The palm plantation was not owned by a single company; it is a complex owned by several farmers,” he said. “How come [Hidayat] paid each local farmer with traveler’s checks each worth Rp 50 million?”