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Former KPK leader, Abraham Samad, gets ‘eastern Indonesia’ support for presidential run
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Abraham Samad delivers a speech during the declaration of his intention to become a presidential candidate in 2019 on May 7. (JP/Andi Hajramurni)
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former leader of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Abraham Samad, is gathering support for a run in the 2019 presidential election from a group calling themselves the Eastern Indonesian People’s Coalition.
The group declared its support on Losari Beach in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Monday.
Before hundreds of people Samad said he was ready to “dedicate his life” to Indonesia. He said that after he retired from the KPK he had visited the regions and said people trusted him to improve Indonesia.
He said he contacted several political parties, although he declined to specify the names. “We haven’t touched on the details. Only to discuss about our shared vision and mission,” he said.
Samad said he was open to the possibility of becoming a vice-presidential candidate. He also said he had yet to decide his political leaning.
During his speech on Monday, he reiterated how corruption ailed Indonesia and that he was the one who could cure it.
In 2015 Samad was embroiled in scandals involving alleged document forgery and intimate pictures of a man looking like him with a woman. The scandals became public shortly after he along with then KPK colleague Bambang Widjojanto named then police chief candidate Gen. Budi Gunawan as a suspect in its investigation into the police general's suspicious bank accounts worth billions of rupiah in 2010. Budi is now the National Intelligence Agency chief. (evi)
