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Jokowi camp shrugs off report on top cop

The release of a recent collaborative investigative report accusing a senior police officer of accepting bribes in relation to a meat-import corruption case has stirred controversy amid the campaign for the 2019 presidential election

Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Kharishar Kahfi and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, October 12, 2018

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Jokowi camp shrugs off report on top cop

T

he release of a recent collaborative investigative report accusing a senior police officer of accepting bribes in relation to a meat-import corruption case has stirred controversy amid the campaign for the 2019 presidential election.

The camp of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin has responded by suggesting that the investigation, published by an independent whistleblower platform, IndonesiaLeaks, is not credible.

The investigation released on Monday reported that two former Corruption Eradication Corruption (KPK) investigators, both of whom were members of the police, tampered with crucial evidence relating to a meat-import bribery case. The two allegedly ripped out several pages of a book containing transactions by meat importer Basuki Hariman.

The report, which was developed based on documents sent by anonymous informants, also cited an alleged flow of bribe money from a meat importer to current National Police chief Tito Karnavian.

The platform is a collaborative effort initiated by, among others, the Alliance of Independent Journalists, Tempo Insitute and Netherlands-based Free Press Unlimited. Media members include Tempo, The Jakarta Post, CNN Indonesia, KBR and Suara.com.

Hasto Kristiyanto, the secretary-general of ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), insinuated that IndonesiaLeaks was part of a political movement to harm Jokowi’s presidential campaign.

“[The report timing] is not a coincidence; it has suddenly emerged as part of the drama relating to Ratna Sarumpaet,” he said, referring to the recent liposuction scandal involving Ratna, an activist who was affiliated with presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto’s camp.

Oesman Sapta Odang, chairman of the Hanura Party, also said that there was something fishy about the report, adding that unknown parties ordered the investigation.

The report found that CCTV footage from April 2017 allegedly showed Adj. Sr. Comr. Roland Ronaldy and Comr. Harun, who were assigned to the KPK as investigators at the time, tearing and altering pages from a financial-records book.

The book was among the evidence that was confiscated in a bribery case involving Basuki and former Constitutional Court justice Patrialis Akbar — both were sentenced to jail last year.

IndonesiaLeaks obtained a document, a KPK investigation report (BAP) on March 9, 2017, documenting interrogation by investigators of witness Kumala Dewi Sumartono, a finance department employee of CV Sumber Laut Perkasa. The documents revealed that Kumala told investigators that some of the money recorded in the book was wired to Tito. The document showed that Kumala told the KPK that between January and July 2016, the company transferred money to Tito. Tito served as the Jakarta Police chief from June 2015 to March 2016, as National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief from March to July 2016 until he was inaugurated as the leader of the National Police.

There were at least eight transactions recorded in the financial-records book, which Kumala wrote herself. Most of the money was wired in US dollars and amounted to Rp 7.2 billion (US$473,372) in total.

Kumala’s BAP and other supporting investigative documents received by IndonesiaLeaks have been validated as legitimate by at least four KPK members.

When asked for confirmation back in August Tito said the accusations had been answered by Brig. Gen. Muhammad Iqbal, the National Police spokesperson, who denied the allegations.

The opposition camp has urged Jokowi to prove his anticorruption commitment. “The case can reveal the ‘anatomy of corruption’ in Indonesia, such as the actors and the patterns,” said Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, a spokesman for the Prabowo campaign team.

Jokowi said that he did not want to intervene in legal cases and the KPK.

Meanwhile, Eni Mulia, executive director of the Association for the Development of Nusantara Media (PPMN), one of the initiators of IndonesiaLeaks, said it deplored the politicians who accused the platform of being political, since the core message that it wanted to deliver was the cooperation between the media and the public in corruption eradication.

“I am worried that if our professional investigative reporting is considered to be political, it will kill journalism itself in Indonesia,” Eni said.

“We hope that the KPK will reopen the investigation into the case to find out who is behind the corruption,” she added.

However, KPK commissioner Saut Situmorang said the antigraft body considered the case to be closed and that it did not have the CCTV footage that recorded the two former investigators allegedly tampering with the evidence.

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