http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4898&Itemid=175
Another Jakarta Courtroom Bombshell
Written by Our Correspondent
Monday, 15 October 2012
Angelina: When all else fails, adopt the jilbab
More trouble for SBY's stumbling Democratic Party
After having endured the near destruction of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party through the revelations of the traveling party
treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin about internal party graft, the party could face
trouble from another source that draws the scandal ever closer to the
president’s own family.
That is the glamorous 2001 Miss Indonesia and Miss Universe contestant,
Angelina Sondakh, who was elected to Indonesia’s House of Representatives in
2004 as a Democratic Party member. She has been suspended and embroiled for
months in accusations that she took Rp12.5 billion (US$1.3 million) and US$2.3
million to steer procurement projects toward universities nationwide and to
supply equipment to the sports ministry.
Mindo Rosalina Manulang, a former Nazaruddin employee and key witness in
the multiple bribery scandals, testified before the Jakarta Corruption Court
last week that Sondakh had visited her in a women’s prison in 2010, where
Manulang had been sentenced to two and a half years for her role in the
multimillion dollar scandal involving construction of an athletes’ village for
the Southeast Asian Games.
During the visit, Sondakh was said to have confessed that her corrupt
actions were backed by Democrat Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum. Manulang
reportedly said Sondakh didn’t want to be prosecuted alone, telling Manulang
that “I might create a bigger tsunami than Muhammad Nazaruddin.” Manulang added
that she was asked not to implicate Sondakh in the athletes’ village case.
Responding to the testimony, a visibly emotional Sondakh confirmed that
she visited Manulang in the women’s prison, but denied making any kind of
threat.
Party treasurer Nazaruddin himself was convicted and jailed for five
years after leading authorities on a months-long chase that finally ended in
the Colombian seaside town of Cartagena. While on his flight from the law he
texted and tweeted reporters, implicating a large number of Democratic Party
officials in the graft case over the athletes’ village, including not only
Urbaningrum but Andi Mallarengeng, the former Youth and Sports minister.
Urbaningrum has been accused of owning a shell company designed to win
contracts for government work. Urbaningrum, however, has continued to deny the
charges and has remained at the head of the party.
The party continues to bleed support that is increasingly certain to cut
into its chances to be a major factor in 2014 presidential elections. However,
the Democrats are said to be delaying removing Urbaningrum from the
chairmanship and seeing him charged by the Corruption Eradication Commission
(KPK) because he has information that could cause even more trouble.
“The big fear with Angie and Nazaruddin has been that they will not only
finger the other bigwigs in the Democrats but will give up the president's son,
Ibas.”
That would be Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, the 32-year-old youngest son of
the president. Edhie was elected a member of the House of Representatives in
2009 and was named a member of the Budget and the House of Representatives
Commission I, overseeing foreign affairs, defense, and information and
communication. He has long been rumored in political circles in Jakarta to have
been involved in the sports complex scandal. Thus, according to political
observers, what is going on now is a search for a way that would see
Urbaningrum go before the KPK while ensuring that he protects unnamed higher
ups. Since he is the head of the party, the implications are clear who the
higher-ups might be.
"The Democrats have to take stern action to clean up the party, otherwise
they will always be under attack," a veteran politician told Asia Sentinel
several weeks ago. "Even before he is indicted, he should be removed. But the
Democrats don’t have the courage to do this. But this is what they need to do
if they are going to save the party."
Damage control from Manulang’s testimony was already underway. Marzuki
Alie, the deputy chairman of Democratic Party’s board of advisers, told
reporters Sondakh’s alleged vow to “create a tsunami at Senayan (the
legislature)” was an empty and ill-advised threat. Sondakh, he said, shouldn‘t
have made the alleged threat. He later texted reporters, saying “Don’t make any
threats. People can lie in this world’s trials but nobody can lie on Judgment
Day in the afterlife.”
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