Akbar says charges against him political

Akbar says charges against him political

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung denied on Wednesday all corruption charges stacked against him in a Rp 40 billion (US$4.44 million) graft scandal, and called the case a maneuver to kill his political career.

Akbar said the corruption charges amounted to character assassination.

"It's not true that I conspired with others to cause losses to the state and spread lies in public. Those accusations clearly attack my personality and are a form of character assassination," Akbar, who is also the chairman of the Golkar party, told the prosecution.

He claimed that he did not abuse his power or attempt to enrich himself as that would go against the trust given to him as a political figure.

"There's a systematic effort to put the blame on me and create negative public opinion against me through many forms and media," he said.

Akbar is charged with misusing Rp 40 billion in nonbudgetary funds of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), which were supposed to be allocated to provide food for the poor, when he was a minister/state secretary in 1999 under then president B.J. Habibie.

Prosecutor Fachmi demanded last week that the court sentence Akbar to a four-year jail term for masterminding the Bulog scandal.

Fachmi said that Akbar had not delivered Bulog funds to the Raudlatul Jannah Islamic Foundation led by Dadang Sukandar, who appointed Winfried Simatupang as the contractor for the distribution of food aid packages to the poor.

Akbar's lawyer Amir Syamsuddin also said that Akbar was innocent of all charges and claimed that the prosecutor had made inconsistent charges against his client.

"Initially, the prosecutor accused our client of delivering the funds to Dadang and Winfried. Now he says that our client kept the funds for himself and that he conspired with Dadang and Winfried that they had received the funds," he said.

However, Fachmi said later that the charges were consistent.

Akbar is on trial with Raudlatul Jannah Foundation chief Dadang and Winfried.

The judges are expected to give their final verdicts within the next one or two weeks.

The Rp 40 billion Bulog fund scam, which allegedly involves Akbar, emerged when the money was not used for a food security program, but was allegedly channeled to the Golkar Party for its 1999 election campaign.

Akbar previously made several inconsistent statements at his trial. At first, Akbar denied receiving the checks but later said he did.

Several figures have lobbied to save Akbar and Golkar. The latest statement in support of Akbar came from the legal team of former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan, who is also charged with corruption related to the Bulog scam in a separate trial.

Rahardi's lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi told the Central Jakarta District Court that there a meeting was held on Oct. 2, 2001, in Muladi's house in Mayestik, South Jakarta. Muladi was Akbar's successor as minister/state secretary under Habibie's presidency.

Rahardi was asked to lie before the investigators from the Attorney General's Office to cover up for Akbar's and the Golkar party's involvement.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), allegedly made a back room deal with Golkar, as many of its members this month voted not to set up a special House committee to investigate Akbar.

The House failed to establish the committee, leaving the reform agenda against corruption in limbo.

The same committee was formed last year to investigate former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was eventually removed from office after he was accused of having received funds from Bulog illegally.