Abdurrahman faults media for fueling rumor mill
JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid lashed out at the media on Thursday for the public craze of seeking the names of ministers investigated for alleged corruption, saying that he did not harbor suspicions about any of his aides.
"I don't have suspicions about anybody," Abdurrahman told journalists after speaking before the House of Representatives.
"I didn't say anything (about the matter) ... Now I hear rumors about three ministers. I am not going to say anything, it's you journalists who keep naming them, not me," the President said.
The intrigue surrounding the investigation of Cabinet ministers reached a high level on Wednesday when the State Secretariat, in unconventional fashion, issued a written statement, saying that Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra was currently not among those investigated.
The issue came to the fore when Abdurrahman said during an overseas trip last week that three of his ministers were being investigated for corruption.
But the President stopped short of naming those under investigation.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman is one of the few people who knows the identities, and he confirmed on Wednesday that his office was conducting a preliminary investigation into the graft as ordered by the President.
Marzuki, whose office is inundated with unresolved investigations of graft from the previous administration, did not affix a deadline for the investigation but acknowledged that it would have to be in the near future due to the high public interest.
A clean government has been one of the primary missions set out by Abdurrahman. When he inaugurated his Cabinet last month, the President said he would rather see his aides resign than come under strong public scrutiny of corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Media reports have frequently cited three names -- Yusril, Minister of Manpower Bomer Pasaribu and Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication Hamzah Haz.
According to some reports, both Hamzah and Yusril allegedly received money from former president B.J. Habibie to help finance their respective party's electoral campaigns.
Bomer Pasaribu, who served on the executive board of the All- Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI), is allegedly tied in to the misuse of funds from state-owned PT Jamsostek, which runs social security programs for workers.
This case in particular revolves around the use of workers funds to construct the Jamsostek high-rise building in South Jakarta.
Bomer chided on Thursday those who accused him.
"I deny the accusation. Please prove it, I will face it," he told reporters at the House.
He claimed that there was a plot against him.
"This whole thing is very weird," he said.
"If someone has evidence, please disclose it. Don't base these allegations on hearsay. Uphold the law of supremacy."
Bomer said he was still in Medan, North Sumatra when the building was constructed.
"When it was built and from where the source of the funding for the construction came from, I don't know. I was still in Medan at the time," Bomer said.
He further claimed that he had no knowledge of the arrangements made by then manpower minister Abdul Latief, then finance minister Fuad Bawazier and former president Soeharto about the construction. (02/emf)