JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE
Indonesians already have little faith in their police and courts, opinion polls show, but their trust may shrink even further after the airing on Tuesday of tapes revealing efforts to undermine the country’s top graft-busters. How Indonesia deals with the case will be a critical test of its commitment to reform.The two anti-corruption officials, Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra Hamzah, have denied police allegations of bribery and abuse of power, and said the case was fabricated and they were wrongfully dismissed from their jobs. The two men were detained by the police last week, sparking a public outcry, and demands for their release grew even stronger after the tapes were aired by the court.
Late on Tuesday night, Nanan Soekarna, national police spokesman, told reporters that the two men would be released from prison, but that the case would continue. “It will be done for the national interest, not because of pressure,” he told reporters.
In their defence, Riyanto and Hamzah had submitted tapes to the Constitutional Court of conversations between a businessman and several people alleged to be in the police and the attorney-general’s office, in which the various players discuss plans to undermine the Corruption Eradication Agency, or KPK.
Thousands of Indonesians were glued to their television sets, at home and at work, as the tapes were broadcast live from the Constitutional Court, which was packed with journalists and spectators and surrounded by tight security. After hearing the tapes, anti-corruption activists urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to conduct a complete shake-up of the police and attorney-general’s office.
“The president should use this for a total reform of the police and the attorney-general’s office. Not only the middle and lower levels, but also the top level,” said Teten Masduki, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia.
The overhaul “is needed, because if you look at this, do you think people can trust them?"
Corruption and flaws in Indonesia’s legal system are often cited by economists and analysts as obstacles to investment in the country, despite its ample resources and abundant and relatively cheap labour. The anti-graft agency has been successful in investigating and charging scores of government officials, members of parliament, business people and central bank officials, and has made many enemies among Indonesia’s political and businesselite as a result.
Geckos and crocodiles
The police case against Riyanto and Hamzah has been widely condemned by some public figures and ordinary Indonesians, and was dubbed “the battle of the geckos and the crocodiles” after a senior police officer who was taped soliciting a bribe likened the KPK to a little house lizard taking on a crocodile. The Constitutional Court played more than four hours of tapes, which the KPK had recorded as part of an investigation of Indonesian businessmen Anggoro Widjojo and his brother Anggodo.
“We find many interesting things in the recordings, from the seemingly central and dominant role of Anggodo, from the police, and other names I need not mention,” said Adnan Buyung Nasution, appointed by Yudhoyono this week to head an investigation of the police handling of the case.
“This is not a problem involving several individuals but this is a systemic problem,” he told Metro TV. Nasution said his team would talk to the parties from the police and attorney-general’s office allegedly speaking or mentioned on the tapes.
National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri has denied the case against the two men was flawed, but said on Monday he would consider calls for them to be released from detention. Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said he was open to an investigation including cross checks with people in his office.
In the course of the tapes, Anggodo discusses ways of implicating the two KPK officers. In different sections of the tapes he says it would be better if they were suspected of extortion rather than bribery — the reason being that otherwise he himself could be implicated in their investigation.
“What should be out is not extortion, but bribery,” he tells one person who is not identified by name. In another section, another unidentified man says: “I will kill Chandra once he’s detained.”
In other parts of the tapes, the participants discussed preparing a script, debated how to divide up a 7 billion rupiah ($734,000) payment to the police, Attorney General’s office and the lawyers, and refer to Mercedes Benz cars, as possible rewards, by their model number.
But the tapes were not without their humorous moments: in between the assorted musical ringtones, one participant burped loudly mid-call, while another was greeted with “What, still sleeping?”.(KOMPAS.com)
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