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View all search resultsJokowi shocked by KPK over police chief hopeful
President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo is said to have been âshockedâ by the Corruption Eradication Commissionâs (KPK) declaration of police chief candidate Budi Gunawan as a graft suspect days before the latter was due to undergo a confirmation hearing at the House of Representatives
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P
resident Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo is said to have been 'shocked' by the Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) declaration of police chief candidate Budi Gunawan as a graft suspect days before the latter was due to undergo a confirmation hearing at the House of Representatives.
Cabinet Secretary Andi Wijayanto said on Tuesday that the President had been shocked to observe the pace of developments in the graft case, in which the police official has been implicated since 2008 without any charges being made up to now.
He said the President, who heard about the KPK announcement on his way to the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) office in South Jakarta, had asked the coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, in his capacity as chairman of the National Police Commission, to take the KPK's move into consideration.
'The President is still waiting for the National Police Commission's recommendation,' Antara news agency quoted Andi as saying.
He said the President had also discussed the issue with Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the House commission scheduled to conduct the hearing, the National Police chief and Budi himself.
State Secretary Pratikno said the government would immediately discuss whether to persist with its nomination of Budi or to select a new candidate.
'The President will discuss the issue tonight and he is expected to make a decision tonight or tomorrow morning,' he said.
The President, who used his prerogative to choose a candidate to replace the current police chief without any consultation from the KPK or the Financial Transaction Report and Analysis Center (PPATK), officially submitted Budi's nomination to the House on Friday.
The KPK held Budi as a suspect for his alleged involvement in several graft cases when he was chief of the career development bureau at the National Police Headquarters between 2004 and 2006.
Separately, Boni Hargen, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia, said the KPK announcement was a blessing in disguise for the President because it may stop the appointment of a potentially embarrassing official.
'The President should be more selective in selecting officials to run the government,' he said.
Azis Syamsuddin, a Golkar Party legislator and member of the law commission, said he was sure that Budi had been nominated as a result of intervention by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri. (***)(+++)
