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Former minister Thomas Lembong's arrest raises political questions
Former trade minister Thomas Lembong allegedly incurred Rp 400 billion (US$25.50 million) in state losses for his involvement in a corruption case pertaining to sugar import policy between 2015 and 2016, when he was serving as trade minister under former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
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Former trade minister Thomas Lembong (left) wears a detainee jacket on Oct. 29, 2024, after the Attorney General's Office (AGO) named him a suspect in a corruption case. Thomas, who campaigned on behalf of the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar ticket in February's presidential election, has been accused of embezzling Rp 400 billion (US$25.50 million)in state funds in connection with sugar imports during his time in office from 2015 to 2016. (Antara/Rivan Awal Lingga)
T
he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has arrested former trade minister Thomas Lembong, who was named a suspect in a corruption case pertaining to sugar imports handled by the Trade Ministry between 2015 and 2016, prompting questions about whether the move was politically motivated.
Investigators allege that Thomas violated the law by issuing a permit for a private company to import 105,000 tonnes of raw sugar, a commodity that would later be processed into white sugar for household consumption.
“The imports took place despite a previous ministerial coordination meeting concluding that there was already a surplus of the commodity that year,” said Abdul Qohar, investigations director at the office of the assistant attorney general for extraordinary crimes, at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“The permit was also issued without any approval from a ministerial coordination meeting or recommendation from related institutions,” he continued.
Thomas, who held the trade minister post between August 2015 and July 2016, was also suspected of ordering state trading firm PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) to work with national sugar producers to import another 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar. The decision was made to meet national demand and to stabilize the commodity’s domestic price.
If the aim was to fulfill demand and stabilize the commodity’s price, PPI should have imported white sugar directly from abroad, rather than doing it through private companies, according to the AGO.
The move led to Rp 400 billion (US$25.50 million) in state losses in the form of profits for eight private companies that should have gone into PPI’s coffers.
