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Year ender: The year of prosecution of former presidents' men
Key player: Then energy and mineral resources minister Jero Wacik answers press questions in October after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named him a suspect in an extortion case at his ministry
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span class="inline inline-center">Key player: Then energy and mineral resources minister Jero Wacik answers press questions in October after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named him a suspect in an extortion case at his ministry. A senior party affiliate and confidant of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his case may lead to further investigations into members of the Yudhoyono administration. JP/Awo
The year 2014 saw prosecutions by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of senior members of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and his ministers in a number of high-profile graft cases that had cost the state trillions of rupiah in losses.
The series of arrests began in mid-January with the arrest of self-declared 'innocent man' Anas Urbaningum, the country's first active ruling party chairman to be netted in a graft case.
Anas' case revealed how a ruling party could abuse the privilege of controlling the country's state projects at ministries led by its own members, a warning to current President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, members of whose Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) control several ministerial posts.
The Jakarta Corruption Court jailed Anas for eight years in July for skimming Rp 94 billion (US$7.56 million) and $5.2 million in fees from dozens of state projects to fund the party's congress in 2010.
The court also sentenced Democratic Party politician Andi Mallarangeng, once dubbed Yudhoyono's golden boy, to four years in prison for allowing Anas' confidants to rig the Hambalang sports complex project under the remit of his Youth and Sports Ministry.
Andi was the first active minister to be convicted for graft. Yudhoyono, as president, had little inclination to save Anas, Andi or other active ministers in graft cases.
In July, the antigraft body also successfully convinced the court to sentence former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar to life in prison for 'selling' verdicts to scores of regional heads whose local-election disputes were being heard at the court.
The court claimed that Akil, who was caught red-handed accepting bribes at his official residence, deserved the historically severe sentence, the first one since the KPK's establishment in 2003, as his offences had tarnished the country's highest judicial institution.
Unlike Anas' ill-gotten gains, which were used to fund political activities, Akil, who accepted Rp 57 billion in bribes and laundered another Rp 180 billion, put the money to personal use, including funding his wife's businesses in Kalimantan.
After months of cracking down on corruption in the lucrative oil and gas sector, the KPK declared former energy and mineral resources minister and Democratic Party member Jero Wacik, a member of Yudhoyono's inner circle, a suspect, as well as Sutan Bhatoegana, the former chairman of the House of Representatives Commission VII and a founder of the party.
Jero is alleged to have pocketed Rp 11 billion from his office, while Sutan allegedly received bribes from former Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas) chief Rudi Rubiandi, who was sentenced to seven years in prison, to help ease the deliberation of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's budget at the House, allegedly on the instructions of Jero.
From Sutan, the KPK later collected information about the infighting among the president's inner circle ' including Yudhoyono's son Edhie 'Ibas' Baskoro ' through an associate Deni Karmaina and the former president's cousin Sartono Hutomo- to cut corners in a $600 million offshore construction project by a local unit of US energy giant Chevron.
Yudhoyono's decision to appoint a team of lawyers to defend his family played a role in shielding Ibas from various graft accusations by Sutan, and also by Anas. Despite his name having been mentioned during court hearings and outside the courtroom, the second son of Yudhoyono ends the year unscathed.
The KPK also came one step closer to prosecuting Yudhoyono's vice president, Boediono, after the court convicted Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Budi Mulya for colluding with Boediono and other BI colleagues to disburse Rp 6.7 trillion to troubled Bank Century, which was not eligible for state aid.
The KPK said that it would charge Boediono and other parties responsible in the case after the Supreme Court upheld Budi's sentence.
Yudhoyono's religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali was also netted by the KPK for allegedly rigging the procurements of transportation, housing and catering for haj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia worth trillions of rupiah as well as misappropriating unfilled places in the haj pilgrimage quota.
Every year at least 1 percent of the 150,000 places in the haj quota is not taken up due to prospective pilgrims falling ill, dying or for other reasons. Instead of passing on the vacant places to regular haj pilgrims already on the waiting list of around 2 million people, the minister allegedly 'sold' the places to the privately run 'ONH Plus' premium haj service.
While Yudhoyono and his men were the main targets, the KPK also ventured into corruption cases that occurred during the tenure of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The antigraft body declared former Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chairman Hadi Poernomo, who was among Megawati's favorite bureaucrats, a graft suspect for approving a request by Bank Central Asia (BCA) for a tax waiver when serving as the Finance Ministry's director general of taxation in 2003.
The antigraft body is also currently investigating alleged irregularities in the issuance of release-and-discharge letters by Megawati for debtors who received Rp 144 trillion in Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) funds.
Several of Megawati's former ministers have been grilled about their roles in the case.
During 2014, the KPK also managed to catch red-handed five regional heads, from regents to governors, accepting bribes from businessmen with regard to land permits and oil and gas contracts.
Former Bogor regent Rachmat Yasin was sentenced to five-and-a-half years for issuing a land-conversion permit for a residential development.
Just weeks away from the end of the year, in a move to improve the fight against corruption, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced the establishment of a special task force to prosecute corruption cases.
Led by HM Prasetyo, a member of the NasDem Party and Jokowi ally, the team aims to improve the currently poor performance of the institution in prosecuting corruption cases.
As the KPK and the AGO's task force comes into full operation, the country may see a better performance in terms of the fight against corruption next year.
It remains to be seen, however, whether targeting frontline politicians, company executives and businessmen will transform the decades-long culture of corruption in business and politics in the country.
