Sad ending for Democrats, harsh lesson for all Primastuti Handayani  ;   Managing editor at The Jakarta Post

JAKART POST, 07 September 2014

                                                                                                                       

                                                      

An interesting picture appeared on the front page of almost all national dailies on Thursday. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik was seen giving a press statement related to his new status as a graft suspect in front of his office, accompanied by his subordinates. Nothing was wrong with the picture. Neither was his attempt to give his side of the story to the press. However, that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) declared him a suspect was apparently much anticipated. He had been summoned by the KPK for questioning as a witness on July 16 only after his wife faced the music concerning their alleged misuse of state funds. The KPK named Jero a suspect on Wednesday for allegedly instructing his subordinates to collect funds amounting to Rp 9.9 billion (US$842,052) from “illegal sources” between 2011 and 2013. The antigraft body was also investigating a possibility that Jero had collected payments from state agencies under his supervision, including the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) and state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, which many have dubbed “cash cows”. As if to add insult to injury, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) said it had found suspicious transactions worth billions of rupiah in Jero’s bank accounts. PPATK deputy chairman Agus Santoso said Jero’s financial records revealed that other parties might have been complicit with Jero in the extortion scheme. Agus declined to identify them, saying it “could hamper the ongoing KPK investigation”. The PPATK records would help the KPK ensnare other players in the case, Agus said. The KPK will continue an asset trace to disclose whether Jero used the money he received from illegal sources to buy his assets, which will allow the commission to charge the minister with money laundering. According to the commission’s records, Jero had total wealth of Rp 11.6 billion and $430,000. He last declared his wealth to the anti-graft body in 2012. To facilitate the investigation, the KPK has slapped a travel ban on Jero although he had assured the investigators he would remain in Indonesia to face the legal process entangling him. KPK spokesman Johan Budi said Jero and his advisor I Ketut Wiryadinata would be banned from traveling overseas for six months, starting Sept. 3. There has been no signal as to whether the KPK will immediately detain Jero as the commission has done with a number of officials and politicians, with the exception of those from the ruling Democratic Party. Jero is the third minister in outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Cabinet to have been named a graft suspect, after former youth and sports minister Andi Alfian Mallarangeng and former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali, who remains chairman of Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP). For Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party, the KPK investigation into Jero’s alleged involvement in a corruption case has dealt them a last major blow. Yudhoyono, who convincingly won the presidency twice in a row in 2004 and 2009, thanks in part to his “Say no to corruption” tagline, will leave office on Oct. 20 with a tainted legacy. Jero is one of seven, though hardly magnificent, Democratic Party politicians charged with or convicted of graft after Angelina Sondakh, Muhamamad Nazaruddin, Hartati Murdaya, Andi Mallarangeng, Anas Ubaningrum and Sutan Bhatoegana. As in other graft cases involving Democratic Party politicians, the KPK is very unlikely to find evidence that the party was among the beneficiaries of Jero’s alleged acts of corruption, but this will confirm a long-standing public perception that political parties are among the most corrupt institutions in the country. The Democratic Party may escape serious allegations of involvement in graft committed by its members, but the public has punished them as evident in its substantial defeats in both the legislative and presidential elections this year. The naming of Jero as a suspect has sparked another debate over whether he should give up the legislative seat he secured in the April 9 election. Jero is among 560 elected House of Representatives members to be sworn in on Oct. 1 and the law says he can assume the post unless the Supreme Court convicts him, which is unlikely to have happened by that date. The KPK has suggested that Jero relinquish his legislative seat and focus on his legal case. Given his press statement that he would face the due process of law, Jero will and should comply with the KPK advice for ethical reasons. The KPK may move quickly to incarcerate Jero, but it will not repeal his status as an elected lawmaker. Such a debate can be easily addressed internally by the Democratic Party. Jero tendered his resignation on Friday to fulfill the integrity pact he had signed prior to his appointment by President Yudhoyono. He should also surrender his House seat and quit the Democratic Party altogether in accordance with the integrity pact he has signed. The party’s secretary Farhan Effendy said the internal mechanism stipulated that the party would dismiss Jero if he refused to resign anyway. The scandal plaguing Jero and the sad ending for the Democratic Party should teach a valuable lesson to president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and vice president-elect Jusuf Kalla and the coalition of parties that nominated them in the presidential election, particularly the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The public is aware of the need for Jokowi to seek compromises with other political parties in his selection of Cabinet ministers. It is, after all, a common practice in politics. To prevent corruption from undermining their Cabinet, Jokowi and Kalla should recruit candidates with proven track records and cut their formal links to political parties. For a starter, they should end their loyalty to their parties now that their loyalty to the state begins. ●