Golkar wants Koran scandal suspect to step down

Zulkarnaen Djabar: (Antara/Yudhi Mahatma)

Anxious under the glare of the Koran procurement scandal, the Golkar Party wants to remove the bad apple from the barrel and has, therefore, urged graft suspect Zulkarnaen Djabar to leave the party.

Golkar’s deputy secretary-general, Nurul Arifin, said Thursday that even though Golkar had yet to make an official statement, most of the party’s politicians had agreed to ask their deputy treasurer Zulkarnaen to resign from his post, both as a member and a lawmaker.

"We have decided that it's best for Zulkarnaen to temporarily leave Golkar until the case [graft-ridden Koran procurement] is settled. I'm not the only one who thinks so; my colleagues also agree in order to save the party from deteriorating," Nurul said.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has declared Zulkarnaen a suspect in the Koran procurement project at the Religious Affairs Ministry.

He is reported to have gained Rp 4 billion (US$426.980) after his son's company, PT KSAI, won the procurement tender.

The Koran procurement will likely also implicate Zulkarnaen's colleagues on the House of Representatives’ Commission VIII overseeing religion, as several of them have admitted to accepting hundreds of copies of the Koran to be distributed free to their constituents.

Nurul from the Golkar Party believes that other officials at the Religious Affairs Ministry also played a role in the graft ridden procurement.

"It's old knowledge that the ministry is one of the most corrupt of all the ministries. I believe that lawmakers cooperated with the ministry's officials in the case," Nurul said.