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Is this the end of the road for ‘teflon’ Setya?
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Against corruption: Anticorruption Civil Society Coalition members call for the arrest of House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto during a rally in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission headquarters in Jakarta on Sept.14.
(Antara/Wahyu Putro A.)
W
hether or not Setya Novanto is guilty of colluding with businessmen, government officials and fellow lawmakers to rig the multi-million dollar national project to procure electronic IDs is for a court to decide.
But the Golkar Party chief has built a reputation as a “teflon” politician who has always managed to get off the hook for his alleged roles in a number of graft scandals, including the e-ID graft case.
When the South Jakarta District Court ruled in his favor in September, annulling the decision made by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to name him a graft suspect in the high-profile case, it triggered an online frenzy, with the ever-creative Indonesian netizens competing to satirize his political acumen.
For months, the House of Representatives speaker has been engaged in a power play with the KPK, which has insisted that it has a strong case against the politician, whose party is leading a House inquiry into the antigraft body’s performance.
Setya has dodged nearly a dozen KPK summonses, citing various reasons ranging from health issues and tight schedules to his claimed right to immunity as a lawmaker.
But on Wednesday, less than week after renaming Setya a suspect in the e-ID graft case, the KPK upped the ante against the politician by issuing a warrant for his arrest. “We have done everything we can to persuade him to fulfill summonses as a witness and suspect," KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said.
The antigraft body sent its top investigators, including Ambarita Damanik, to his house in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. But they were only met by his wife and lawyer. As of Thursday afternoon, Setya was nowhere to be seen.
The KPK has urged Setya to turn himself in within 24 hours, saying that it is considering putting him on a wanted list and thus transforming him into a graft fugitive.
Senior Golkar members are scrambling to find a way to resolve the worst crisis to hit the party in years. While Setya’s loyalists claimed to be standing behind the embattled chairman, some of his detractors were quick to call for his resignation to salvage the party ahead of the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 legislative and presidential elections.
"[He] must be immediately [replaced] if he is nowhere to be found. If a captain disappears, why wouldn't we replace the captain?" Vice President Jusuf Kalla, a former Golkar leader, said in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, after attending a national meeting of the NasDem Party.
Golkar is currently the biggest supporter of President Jokowi’s re-election. It remains unclear if Setya can remain in his post.
The 62-year-old politician, however, has refused to give up.
He has apparently resorted to the same tactic he used before to escape KPK prosecution, which is to file another pretrial motion against the antigraft body's decision to rename him as a suspect in the e-ID scandal.
A spokesman of the South Jakarta District Court, Made Sutrisna, said on Thursday that Setya's lawyers had filed the pretrial motion on Tuesday.
If the court approves the motion and proceeds with a hearing, this will be the second time the KPK has faced Setya in a pretrial hearing, after the antigraft body lost the first round in September.
The court has yet to appoint a judge to handle the pretrial motion, said Made, who suggested that the court would likely rule out judge Cepi Iskandar, who presided over the first pretrial hearing. "Probably not [Cepi], so we can avoid a conflict of interest," Made said.
Meanwhile, Golkar has said it will provide legal assistance for Setya. "This is about solidarity. [Because] we are family,” senior Golkar member Mahyudin said after visiting Setya's house on Wednesday night.
The House of Representatives ethics council (MKD) is considering suspending Setya, saying that his legal wrangle would prevent him from performing his duties as House speaker.
“At this point, he can't carry out his duties, can he? It is safe to say that he can't," said MKD deputy chairman Sarifuddin Sudding.
As his fate now hangs in the balance, Golkar politicians claimed that they did not know where he was.
"I've been trying to call him since last night but his cellphone is off," Golkar secretary-general Idrus Marham, a Setya loyalist, said. "Actually, he's not running away. If I meet him I'll tell him to make it all clear as soon as possible.” (ahw)
