J

ust a day after Aburizal Bakrie wound up a personally satisfying Golkar Party national congress, the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) arrested a senior member of his party for alleged involvement in a graft case.

The arrest was a clear message to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s opponents that the country'€™s newly inaugurated leader will strike back against any attempts at political bullying.

It is possible that the business tycoon himself could become the target of further counter attacks from the government as his business empire is also vulnerable to government investigations.

The AGO took the head of Golkar'€™s West Java chapter, Irianto MS Syafiuddin, popularly known as Yance, from his residence in the West Java city of Indramayu early on Friday and brought him to the AGO headquarters in Jakarta.

Yance is accused of having committed corruption during the land-procurement process for the Kali Adem steam-fueled power plant project when he was Indramayu regent.

Although he had been named a suspect in the case since 2010, Yance remained at liberty until Friday.

Yance, who is alleged to have caused state losses of Rp 4.1 billion (US$333,373) in the case, will be detained at the AGO'€™s detention center for the next 20 days.

Newly inaugurated Attorney General HM Prasetyo, however, insisted that there was no political motive behind Yance'€™s arrest.

'€œLaw enforcement must be [carried out] independently,'€ said Prasetyo, whose appointment was widely criticized as many people doubted his capacity and even integrity.

'€œ[We] have been handling this case for the past four years, but there have been many obstacles and other issues. Now, we will wrap it up immediately,'€ the former NasDem Party politician.

Golkar'€™s national congress had dealt party chairman Aburizal a stronger hand within the opposition Red-and-White Coalition after he easily secured his reelection by acclamation. The congress also produced a recommendation that Golkar, currently the country'€™s second-largest political party, retract its support for the government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on the election of regional leaders and put an end to direct regional elections.

Despite its success in supporting Jokowi'€™s presidential bid this year, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has so far failed to gather majority support in the House, creating potential hurdles for Jokowi'€™s administration.

Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham, however, chose to dismiss any political motive behind
Yance'€™s arrest.

'€œI think we don'€™t need to relate this to politics. This is just an ongoing legal process,'€ he said, adding that Golkar would also provide legal support for Yance.

Political analyst Arya Fernandes of the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said Yance'€™s arrest was a major blow to Golkar.

'€œGolkar desperately needed to create a good public image after concluding their national congress. Yance'€™s arrest, however, has damaged these efforts,'€ he said.

Arya believes that Golkar will immediately fight back.

'€œTo divert attention from the [corruption] issue, Golkar will likely highlight issues on the AGO'€™s independence to undermine Jokowi'€™s credibility,'€ he said.

The director of Gadjah Mada University'€™s Center for Anticorruption Studies (Pukat) in Yogyakarta, Zainal Arifin Mochtar, however, said he believed that '€œactions were more important than motives.'€

'€œLaw enforcement and corruption eradication efforts must be supported whatever the government'€™s motivation is,'€ said the senior lecturer.

'€œThe only thing the AGO must prove in the future is its commitment to arresting graft suspects, no matter what their political affiliation.'€