JAKARTA, Nov 5 — Indonesians are transfixed by a corruption scandal increasingly being seen as damaging to the President and his government, barely two weeks after they were sworn into office.
A Constitutional Court hearing in connection with the scandal has received saturation coverage in the media here, including live nationwide broadcasts of the proceedings, TV talk shows devoted to it and front page stories by all major dailies.
The scandal involves the nation’s highest law enforcement bodies, with the Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) and police on one side and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on the other.
Analysts say public anger over the arrest of two top KPK officials and the disclosure on Tuesday, by way of wiretap testimony, of an apparent high-level conspiracy to weaken the anti-graft body has damaged confidence in the police and AGO.
Many Indonesians were disappointed after hearing the tape recordings, which appeared to show senior police officers and prosecutors conspiring with corruption suspects to frame KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah for bribery and abuse of power.
They also heard President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s name mentioned a dozen times by the alleged conspirators, who claimed he supported the attempt to muzzle the anti-graft body.
The tape recordings were so damaging that police caved in to public pressure by releasing the two KPK leaders from detention early yesterday.
The police also detained businessman Anggodo Widjojo, a central figure in the scandal, who was wiretapped for two months by the KPK.
“It’s unfortunate that things turned out this way with widespread public anger over the scandal, which will put a dent in Dr Yudhoyono’s popularity,” said analyst Sukardi Rinakit of the Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate think-tank.
“Dr Yudhoyono should have acted earlier and with much swiftness when the two KPK leaders were detained, before the upsurge of public anger,” he added.
The vice-chairman of the Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Hariyadi, warned that the country’s investment climate would be badly affected if the scandal was not resolved.
And analyst Bantarto Bandoro, executive director of Jakarta-based think-tank Institute for Strategic Studies, said Indonesia’s international image and that of Yudhoyono himself had been tarnished by the scandal.
Yudhoyono, a retired four-star general, was voted in for a second term in July on a platform touting his reforms and tough anti-corruption stance.
In the face of rising public disquiet about the scandal, the President had set up an independent team to probe the police decision to detain the KPK leaders and the allegations they were framed.
But following Tuesday’s revelations, Yudhoyono now faces pressure to conduct a complete shake-up of the police and the AGO.
Calls for the sacking of police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji have also mounted.
There have been demonstrations on the streets of Jakarta and several other cities denouncing the police and the prosecutors and supporting the KPK. — The Straits Times
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
