Refleksi : Sekalipun diam dan tenang orangnya, tetapi agaknya SBY adalah jago
pemain bawah meja, lihat saja mengapa SBY bungkam seribu bahasa terhadap kasus
hasil korupsi boss Soeharto yang disimpan di berbagai pelosok dunia. Membungkam
bisa berarti membela, menyetujui korupsi bossnya, sekalipun hiruk pikuk
menghajar korupsi, tetapi bukan koruptor kelas ikan paus melainkan kelas ikan
teri, jadi anti korupsinya tebang pilih.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/president-swept-up-in-indonesian-corruption-scandal-\
20091120-iqus.html


President swept up in Indonesian corruption scandal
TOM ALLARD HERALD CORRESPONDENT
November 21, 2009

Change on the cards ... university students stage an anti-corruption rally in
Jakarta. Photo: AFP

JAKARTA: It is an allegation that has spread like wildfire through Jakarta's
elites and is now being openly canvassed in the press.

Was the election campaign of Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -
fought and won on his credentials as an anti-graft campaigner - financed by
elite donors who were bailed out in dubious circumstances with public funds?

At the heart of the corruption scandal sweeping the country is the $760 million
rescue of Bank Century last year, a small bank dominated by shareholders and
depositors from some of Indonesia's richest families.

An investigation by the independent anti-corruption watchdog, the Corruption
Eradication Commission, or KPK, into what appeared to be a case of irregular
prudential regulation seemed simple enough. Its early findings implicating
senior police in kickbacks in exchange for ensuring the funds went to wealthy
beneficiaries were alarming, but not spectacular by Indonesian graft standards.

What has opened a pandora's box for the President was the extraordinary police
effort to shut down the KPK investigation - an apparently brazen conspiracy to
imprison the body's leadership on trumped-up charges of bribery and murder.

It has laid bare the deep-seated corruption in the law-enforcement establishment
but, in light of the President's seeming indifference to the assault on the KPK,
has raised a question that has yet to be answered: what are they trying to hide?

Beyond the prominent figures who had parked their money in Bank Century, the
institution's bail-out was odd for a number of reasons. First, the bank's
collapse was due to the embezzlement of funds, rather than an exposure to the
ructions in world financial markets.

Moreover, the bank was so small that it posed no risk of triggering systemic
failure across the country's financial system.

The size of the bail-out also grew five times beyond that authorised by
parliament, and went direct to select shareholders and depositors, rather than
re-capitalising the bank so it could begin trading again.

Among those who were given the money were Hartati Murdaya, the treasurer of the
Democrat Party re-election campaign, and Budi Sampoerna, another supporter of
the President.

As the KPK investigation gathered pace, there was a remarkable development. The
chairman of the KPK, Antasari Azhar, was arrested and accused of murdering a
Jakarta businessman, because the two men were infatuated with the same female
golf caddy. Mr Antasari's case remains before the courts, but the key
prosecution witness has already changed his story and claimed he was told to
fabricate evidence.

It then emerged that the KPK had uncovered evidence that senior police had been
orchestrating the siphoning of bail-out money for Bank Century in exchange for
large bribes. Chief among their suspects was its chief detective, Susno Duadji.

Mr Susno, aware his calls were being intercepted by the KPK, made a comment that
came to define the scandal: ''How dare a gecko [ KPK] challenge a crocodile
[police and prosecutors].''

The retaliation of the crocodile was swift. Two KPK deputy chairmen - Chandra
Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto - were soon charged by the police with abuse of
power and soliciting bribes and put in prison.

They claimed they were set up, and the evidence later emerged to back their
assertion.

As television cameras rolled, more than four hours of KPK wiretaps were played
in a Jakarta court earlier this month. Millions of transfixed viewers heard
various senior police and prosecutors talking about framing the two KPK
deputies, even suggesting that Mr Chandra, following his imprisonment, could be
murdered.

At one point in the recordings, an unidentified woman can be heard saying Dr
Yudhoyono supported the plot.

As evidence goes, it was no smoking gun. And the President has vehemently denied
the claim. On Thursday his Justice Minister, Patrialis Akbar, said: ''Rumours
saying that funds had flowed to SBY and his presidential election campaign team
are slander.''

The director of the Anti-Corruption Assessment Centre at the Gajah Mada
University, Zainal Arifin Mochtar, said the jury would remain out until a
parliamentary investigation was completed.

''It is premature to say now that the President is involved directly and
indirectly. But his comments and actions do not help him,'' Dr Zainal said.

Dr Yudhoyono's support for the KPK has been, at best, equivocal. He complained
that its power must ''not go unchecked''. Police and prosecutors implicated in
tapes have also been returned to their positions.

His Democrat Party has fiercely resisted a parliamentary inquiry into the Bank
Century bail-out, while Dr Yudhoyono's policy to combat a ''judicial mafia'' of
corrupt police, prosecutors and judges has so far amounted to introducing a
''complaints box'' for the public.

Much will depend on his response, due on Monday, to the recommendation of an
independent taskforce known as the Team of Eight.

It wants the case against the two KPK deputies dropped, corrupt police and
prosecutors removed and the leadership of the police and attorney-general's
department reshuffled.

It also wants the Bank Century bail-out examined.

''The President said he would curb this judicial mafia,'' said Frenky
Simanjuntak of Transparency International, an anti-corruption non-government
organisation.

If he does not, thundered the Jakarta Post this week, he ''will be staring his
own political suicide in the face''.

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