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PKS installs new House deputy speaker after graft scandal
You scratch my back: Leader of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in the House of Representatives Hidayat Nur Wahid (left) congratulates Sohibul Iman on becoming House deputy chair
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span class="inline inline-none">You scratch my back: Leader of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in the House of Representatives Hidayat Nur Wahid (left) congratulates Sohibul Iman on becoming House deputy chair. Sohibul replaces Anis Matta, who quit to take on the party leadership following the downfall of Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq after the KPK named him a suspect. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
As a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician joined the leadership of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, new revelations emerged relating to the alleged involvement of the Islamist party’s politicians in a graft case surrounding the importation of beef.
The PKS has officially appointed lawmaker Mohamad Sohibul Iman to replace Anis Matta, who resigned from his position as the House deputy speaker earlier this month.
Anis took over the party leadership from Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, who was named a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a bribery case.
The leader of the PKS faction at the House, Hidayat Nur Wahid, told reporters on Tuesday that the party was convinced Sohibul was the right man to replace Anis as the individual in charge of economic issues at the House.
Hidayat also said that Sohibul had the task of improving the party’s tarnished image.
“He [Sohibul] has the task of improving the party’s image as well as the House’s in order to win back public support. We want him to fight corruption and collusion to ensure that the state budget is well allocated,” Hidayat said.
Sohibul earlier served as a member of House Commission VI overseeing trade, industry and investment and was formerly head of the party’s department of economy, finance, industry and technology.
The party also tasked Sohibul with closely monitoring ongoing investigations into the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) case and the Bank Century bailout, causing state losses of over Rp 6.7 trillion.
Sohibul received his doctoral degree from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and a Masters Degree in engineering from Tokyo’s Takushoku University.
Prior to his stint as a lawmaker, he served as rector of the Jakarta-based Paramadina University from 2005 to 2007. Sohibul said he would work to improve transparency at the House.
“We need to be more transparent about what we are doing so that the public can have access to our work. Transparency is one of the issues I will focus on. It’s a way of ensuring the public that we do actually work here,” he added.
Meanwhile, Luthfi underwent another round of questioning at the KPK’s headquarters on Tuesday.
Luthfi’s lawyer Mohammad Assegaf confirmed that his client had conversations with Agriculture Minister Suswono, also a PKS politician, concerning the quota for the importation of meat.
“There had been talk [between Luthfi and Suswono] on the importance of seminars on the meat import quota issue because there was discrepancy in the information that Suswono had with the data provided by the association of meat importers,” said Assegaf on Tuesday.
Although Luthfi was not a member of House Commission IV overseeing agriculture, he was convinced that he could give his opinion on the issue, given his previous position as party chairman, Assegaf said.
