Antasari Azhar said he was targeted in a murder case by law enforcement agencies because of his role as head of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK. (Antara Photo)
Major law agencies appear to be used increasingly by their leaders to pursue personal interests, avenge rivals and protect their cronies while paying little heed to upholding justice, according to legal experts.
Revenge and attempts to protect troubled members of those agencies were overshadowing their real mission of fighting crime, experts said over the weekend.
They highlighted many controversial cases, from the murder trial of Antasari Azhar to the charges against two antigraft commissioners and the rise and fall of the National Police’s Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji.
“While this continues to happen, a graft suspect like Anggodo Widjojo could win a case against the Attorney General’s Office while sitting in his cell and force the court to order the trial of two antigraft officials,” said Andri Gunawan, secretary general of nongovernmental group Indonesian Judicial Watch Society (Mappi). “This is of course not what we expect from our judicial system.”
He said law agencies such as the National Police and the AGO were themselves prone to internal rivalries because senior officials tended to group with colleagues of the same graduation class or who came from the same region, noting that the inner circle at the AGO was dominated by officials from Central Java.
“They form small factions inside the agencies so that’s why they don’t appear as solid entities,” Andri told the Jakarta Globe. “Such a phenomenon is also true in the military, but they can manage the issue much better.”
There is a growing belief that law-enforcement agencies often bring charges against their own members or others out of vengeance and with the intention to show which agency is stronger.
Antasari said he was targeted in a murder case because of his role as head of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
He has said prosecutors eagerly pursued the death sentence in his trial because his first major achievement in the agency had been uncovering a humiliating bribery scandal at the AGO.
Antasari, now serving an 18-year jail term, was an AGO official for 25 years before taking the helm at the antigraft body.
“KPK at that time successfully uncovered major corruption cases involving government officials, lawmakers and law enforcement officials,” Antasari said in his Jan. 19 defense against the death sentence demand. “But why should someone’s life be sacrificed just to see the KPK rid of me?”
Susno, the former chief of detectives, was detained by police as a graft suspect not long after he implicated his colleagues in the controversial trial of tax official Gayus Tambunan, whom he said had paid billions of rupiah to law enforcers who fix the case.
Susno also openly accused two police generals of taking bribes from the taxman.
“Susno is the whistle blower and because of his information many law enforcers, including police, were implicated in the case. If he didn’t hit the police, would he become a suspect in another case? If the answer is no, then Susno’s arrest was nothing but a retaliatory measure,” said Muhammad Assegaf, a lawyer for both Susno and Antasari.
“As for Antasari, prosecutors sought the death sentence for him, while in many other murder cases they only recommend a jail sentence. I think you know the reason why.”
Susno earlier made news in September when he controversially slapped criminal charges against KPK deputy chairmen Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto.
In an interview with a local magazine before the two became suspects, he compared the KPK-police rivalry as the battle between a gecko and crocodile, police being the latter, but he later denied having said so.
In an e-mail supposedly written by Susno circulated at that time, he described how he was offended by the KPK’s tough measures against a former police chief and that the commission was so powerful that everything it did was accepted by the public.
Susno neither denied nor confirmed writing the message.
When the Chandra-Bibit case fell apart following indications that police and prosecutors helped fabricate the case, Susno was removed from his post amid mounting public pressure and he later shocked police with his report about Gayus.
“It’s not the first time police have got tough on their own members deemed as not loyal. During the leadership of Bimantoro, he detained eight mid-ranking officers who had opposed his nomination for police chief by then president Gus Dur [Abdurrahman Wahid],” said Neta Pane, chairman of nongovernmental group Police Watch.
“They were detained for three months without trial when Bimantoro eventually won the top post.”
But Susno was the first three-star police general to become the target of “institutional revenge,” he said.
Low pay is often blamed as the main reason for corrupting prosecutors or policemen, but Amdri disagreed.
“If they were paid more, then people would just have to increase the bribe for their service,” he said, half-jokingly. “I agree they should increase the budget for police and the AGO to a reasonable level, but don’t just give a carrot while forgetting the stick.”
The AGO’s tough approach into the Antasari case, Susno’s anger at the KPK, police’s measures against Susno and the counterattack by the disappointed detective “might have constructed a pattern, but we need to remain fair in making the judgments,” said Andrianus Meliala, a criminal law expert from the University of Indonesia.
“We cannot build a theory based on a series of events that already happened, because it might prove wrong in future events. I still believe the country’s judiciary system is on the right track toward the supremacy of law.”
A walk in the park: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (foreground, blue shirt) walks with journalists on a path in the grounds of Cipanas Palace in Cianjur, West Java, on Friday. Yudhoyono is dedicating most of his Friday to relaxing with journalists at the palace, located some 100 kilometers south of Jakarta, which has 26 hectares of botanical gardens, a swimming pool and a jogging track. Antara/Widodo S. Jusuf
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is dedicating most of his Friday to relaxing with journalists at the State Palace in Cipanas, West Java.
After finishing a breakfast of chicken porridge in the palace gardens, accompanied by hundreds of journalists and staff members, Yudhoyono cheerfully performed a couple of songs before the attendees.
"Eat so that you're strong enough to do the walk. We'll see some beautiful scenery," Yudhoyono said to several breakfasting journalists before his performance.
He and the large group of staff and journalists are scheduled to take a 1.4-kilometer-long walk in the woods inside the palace complex before planting some trees – an activity he has recently made a hobby whenever he makes visits outside the capital.
His wife, first lady Ani Yudhoyono, sons Agus Harimurti and Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, daughter-in-law Annisa Pohan and granddaughter Almira Tunggadewi Yudhoyono were all present on Friday.
The President will take part in futsal and table tennis matches against journalists before having a dialog with them later in the afternoon.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono breaking into song during a public relations exercise on Friday. Yudhoyono later told journalists that Indonesia needed to protect itself against the Internet and avoid being "crushed by the information technology frenzy."
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President plants trees at Cipanas Palace
The president has suggested that once governors and district heads were tried for graft, they should be promptly suspended and replaced.
Regional officials charged with corruption will be dealt with swiftly and decisively if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has his way, the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Tuesday.
Minister Gamawan Fauzi said the president had suggested that once governors and district heads were tried for graft, they should be promptly suspended and replaced.
“How can regional leaders concentrate on their responsibilities to the people if they are busy dealing with their own cases? This is the problem facing the nation,” Gamawan said, adding that a total of 150 governors and district heads have been charged with corruption since 2004.
Yudhoyono recently approved a list of legal measures that could be used against erring public servants. He has also issued permits to police and prosecutors to investigate such cases.
“The president has said, ‘No more corruption cases.’ So when a regional leader is named a defendant in a criminal case, he will be replaced,” Gamawan said.
The main reason why provincial officials were often charged with corruption, Gamawan added, was their inability to manage regional budgets based on existing regulations.
“The president has called for capacity building among regional officials, because they need to improve on their financial management skills,” Gamawan said. “We cannot let these officials fall into legal disputes.”
Gamawan said the president also raised the issue of massive spending in local elections. This year, a total of Rp 3.55 trillion ($39 million) has been spent in 244 districts across the country, with each candidate spending an average or Rp 5 billion.
“The president said these candidates should cut down on their spending. The money being spent may put an added burden on the candidates. Ultimately, it may lead to offenses,” Gamawan said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the House of Representatives are currently discussing ways to reduce spending in local elections, including limiting the number of participants during a campaign.
“Inviting a big crowd has proven to be very costly, for any candidate,” Gamawan said.
Another option was for candidates to be voted into office by members of the provincial legislative council instead of by direct election.
Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 06/16/2010 3:16 PM
The central bank has introduced six regulations, which it says not a capital control mechanism, to improve the effectivity of its monetary policies and stabilize the financial system and the rupiah.
The regulations include a minimum one-month holding period of Bank Indonesia (BI) certificates, which will be implemented starting July 7.
BI will also issue BI certificates maturing in nine months and 12 months starting August and September, respectively, acting BI governor Darmin Nasution said in a press conference.
The regulations will cover domestic and foreign investors, he said. "This isn't solely aimed at foreign investors," he said.
Police confiscated Rp 60 billion from a safe deposit box allegedly belonging to former tax official Gayus Tambunan (Photo Antara)
The National Police confiscated nearly Rp 60 billion ($ 6,541,291) from former tax official Gayus Tambunan, who is a suspect in money laundering and tax evasion cases. The cash was kept in a safety deposit box.
“We have obtained cash amounting to almost Rp 60 billion,” National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told Metro TV. “We will investigate the sources of the money, whether it be money laundering or others.”
Bambang declined to mention where the safety box was found. “We found it somewhere,” he said.
On Monday, police said that they had handed over to prosecutors the dossiers on seven suspects linked to the case of Gayus in preparation for trial.
“The dossiers include those on two police officers who have been named suspects in the case,” said National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang, referring to investigators Comr. Arafat Enanie and Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini.
On March 12, Gayus, then a mid-ranking tax official, was acquitted of embezzlement by the police despite having Rp 28 billion in his bank accounts. The money was believed to have come from corporate taxpayers seeking his help in avoiding to pay their taxes.
On Friday, the two prosecutors at the center of the controversial acquittal, Cirus Sinaga and Poltak Manullang, were charged with corruption and money laundering, the National Police said.
However, Edward said that neither have been formally questioned. “We haven’t called them in,” he said. “We’ll schedule that later.”