http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5027&Itemid=175
Once-Top Indonesian Reformer's Feet of Clay
Written by Our Correspondent
Friday, 07 December 2012
SBY starts to sweat
Sports minister, once thought presidential material, is named a
corruption suspect
Indonesia's Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng, a
one-time voice of the new reformasi Indonesia, resigned Friday after being
named a suspect on corruption charges by the country’s anti-graft watchdog.
Mallarangeng, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s handpicked choice to
lead the Democratic Party until he was pushed aside by party leader Anas
Urbaningrum – who is also expected to be named a suspect in the same corruption
probe – had been seen as a possible future president not long ago. .
The charges had long been expected, dealing with the construction of the
scandal-plagued athletes’ village for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games. A
widening ring of top Democratic Party officials has been snared in the probe,
including the onetime party treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, who has been jailed
on bribery charges and who has been an invaluable witness central to the case.
Earlier this week Nazaruddin submitted documents to the KPK that he said proved
that Anas and secretary general Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono -- Yudhoyono's son --
were aware of the flow of corruption-tainted funds.
Mallarangang “is a huge disappointment to a lot of people because he was
once thought to be clean and an example of a new breed of political leader,”
said a veteran Jakarta-based political analyst. The act is yet another
indication that the Corruption Eradication Commission is drawing ever closer to
the circle that surrounds the president himself.
Mallarangang is not the only disappointment. After Indonesia climbed
slowly up the Berlin-based Transparency International’s annual Corruption
Perceptions Index from the time Yudhoyono came into office, the country slid
from 100th of 186 in 2011to 118th of 176 this year, tying with Madagascar,
Egypt, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, as the scandals have taken their
toll.
Mallarangang maintained his innocence. "I am certain that the many
accusations that have been leveled against me are not true," he said, adding
that he hoped that "truth and justice" would eventually prevail. He said he had
been speaking out against graft and corruption from the time he was a college
student.
With Mallarangang and Urbaningram seemingly enmeshed in the charges, the
slow-moving train wreck that is the leadership of SBY’s party seems to be
speeding up. When SBY first came into office at the start of his first term, he
was given high marks for pushing reformasi, cleaning out the vast web of
corruption that had infected Indonesian politics and society during the 39-year
reign of the strongman Suharto. His cadre of bright young reformers were looked
upon by international investors as emblematic of that push for reform. That
reputation now lies in wreckage.
"This is getting closer and closer to SBY," a veteran risk consultant
said of Mallarangeng's resignation. "It was time for Andi to fall on sword for
the President. But it won't stop here." The KPK, as the corruption watchdog is
called, appears to be picking up speed in its own determination to clean out
Indonesia’s top rungs. It detained the former traffic police chief. Inspector.
Gen. Djoko Susilo this week and also some time ago netted Siti Hartati Murdaya
Poo, the wife of one of the country’s richest Chinese industrialists, Murdaya
Poo. Ranked by Forbes the 19th richest businessman in the country, Siti Hartati
is the chairwoman of the Indonesian Buddhist Association.
The KPK has compiled an enviable conviction rate since the organization’s
establishment in 2002, pulling down an astonishing 100 percent of the cases it
has prosecuted in relation to bribery and graft involving government
procurements and budgets. However, perhaps 20,000 cases have been reported to
the agency, which is overwhelmed by the magnitude of Indonesian corruption.
Mallarangeng was named a suspect on Dec. 3, according to KPK chairman
Abraham Samad, on allegations of abuse of power to benefit himself or others,
and causing losses to the state. The charge carries up to 20 years in jail and
fines of up to Rp1 billion. The Supreme Audit Agency, which audited the sports
project, said it was full of irregularities that had potentially cost the state
up to Rp243 billion in losses.
The results of the audit also showed that Andi was responsible for
presiding over procedural malpractice related to his ministry’s budgeting,
according to the statements, allowing his secretary, Wafid Muharram, to sign
the procurement contract, against a government regulation requiring contracts
of more than Rp 50 billion to be signed by the minister himself.
“People are really sick of the sleaze,” said a political observer. “I
think the KPK may be getting too strong and popular to be stopped. The ultimate
beneficiary could be a potential presidential reform candidate in 2014.”
So far, no such candidate has emerged although Prabowo Subianto, the head
of the Gerindra Party and currently the leading candidate in opinion polls to
replace Yudhoyono, is seizing on the issue as part of his campaign.
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