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Communications minister arrested on corruption charges
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he Attorney General's Office (AGO) has named Communications and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate of the NasDem Party a suspect in a graft case related to the procurement of base transceiver stations (BTS) for a government 4G telephony project.
Johnny was arrested on Wednesday after a three-hour interrogation by investigators from the office of the assistant attorney general for extraordinary crimes (Jampidsus) in Jakarta. It was his third interrogation in three months.
AGO investigators also searched Johnny’s official residence at the Widya Chandra ministerial housing complex in South Jakarta and his office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.
“We concluded that there was enough evidence that [Johnny] was involved in the alleged corruption related to the [procurement of BTS] for the 4G infrastructure project," Jampidsus director of investigations Kuntadi told the press on Wednesday.
The BTS procurement is headed by the Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) under Johnny’s ministry. The project began in 2020, following his installation as minister in October 2019.
By 2023, the ministry was supposed to have erected some 8,000 4G BTS towers in the country’s least developed and outermost regions. But in the first development phase, which had a budget of Rp 10 trillion (US$672 million), the ministry only achieved half of its target of 4,200 BTS towers by 2021. The project’s major delays raised suspicions of mismanagement and graft.
The AGO said the alleged corruption caused Rp 8.1 trillion in state losses, far higher than its previous estimation of Rp 1 trillion.
Johnny was the sixth person to be named a suspect in the case. The AGO named the five other suspects in February.
Kuntadi said the investigation team would interrogate Johnny's brother, Gregorius Alex Plate, who allegedly received a Rp 534 million kickback from the project, despite not being a civil servant. Gregorius voluntarily handed over the money to Jampidsus in mid-March.
Speaking to the press on Wednesday evening at the NasDem office in Jakarta, chairman Surya Paloh said the party respected the rule of law and the principle of transparency and promised to fully cooperate with investigators.
"[The AGO’s decision to name] Johnny as a suspect is part of a legal process that we must respect," he said.
Johnny is the first minister from NasDem to have been implicated in a graft case and the second secretary-general. The first was Patrice Rio Capella, who was convicted for accepting bribes in 2015.
Johnny is also the third Cabinet member to be arrested on graft charges during President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s second and final term in office. In late 2020, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested then-social affairs minister Juliari P. Batubara of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and former maritime affairs and fisheries minister Edhy Prabowo of the Gerindra Party as part of two different corruption cases.
The fact that Johnny's case was not the first graft case implicating an elite of a political party showed that "political corruption is still rampant in Indonesia", said antigraft activist Kurnia Ramadhana of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
Johnny's current status as a suspect has sparked fresh speculation about the fate of NasDem Cabinet ministers.
Rumors of a Cabinet reshuffle emerged after NasDem declared its support for popular opposition figurehead Anies Baswedan’s 2024 presidential bid in October 2022. The decision has complicated the party’s relationship with Jokowi and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has called on the President to remove NasDem ministers from his Cabinet.
Surya said on Wednesday that it was the prerogative of the President to remove Johnny and name his replacement.
Politician Achmad Badowi of the United Development Party (PPP) described Johnny’s arrest as an opportunity for a reshuffle, while Drajad Wibowo of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said not having a Cabinet shake-up after Johnny’s arrest would leave his ministerial post empty and could put governance in disarray.
Both PAN and the PPP have been outspoken in calling for NasDem to be ousted from the Cabinet.
