Akbar trial fails to link money to politics
Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With Akbar Tandjung's conviction in a Rp 40 billion corruption case involving State Logistic's Agency (Bulog) funds, legal experts said chances were slim that the public would find out where the money actually went.
Although many have suspected that the money went to the Golkar Party which Akbar chairs, following up on this was deliberately left out of Akbar's trial. However, it did determine that the money was not used for the poor as Akbar claimed.
"I am afraid there isn't much hope for the public to find out now where the money went," said legal expert Pradjoto on Thursday.
Neither prosecutors nor the judges seemed interested in the actual beneficiary of the ill-gotten money.
Prosecutors refused to include that possibility in their indictment, calling it irrelevant.
"They (prosecutors) focused on Akbar's mistake and in doing so, that shifted attention away from Golkar," Pradjoto said.
Akbar, also speaker of the House of Representatives, was sentenced to three years in jail in a verdict on Wednesday many considered too mild, especially since he is now free pending appeal which could take months or years.
"Akbar's sentence is too lenient because the charges against him were not linked to Golkar," said legal expert Achmad Ali of the Makassar-based University of Hasanuddin. "Had prosecutors combined the case with tracing the money to Golkar, the verdict could have been heavier."
The stated penalty for corruption is 20 years to life in prison, however prosecutors requested only four years.
Combining the two charges would have meant that Akbar was also guilty of violating Law 2/1999 on political party laws which limits donation to Rp 150 million.
Criminal law expert Rudy Satrio of the University of Indonesia said judges should have taken the initiative to expand the indictment to include tracing the money with the possibility of implicating Golkar.
Akbar was the state secretary under then president B.J. Habibie, also a top Golkar man, when he received the funds in February 1999, months before his party contested the general election.
Golkar secured a surprising second place behind the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), defying criticisms of its central role under the 32-year iron-fisted rule of Soeharto.
Akbar claimed all along that the Rp 40 billion was meant to feed the poor and that he transferred it to the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation for that purpose.
It turned out that the foundation never received the money and, in fact, Raudlatul Jannah and the food distribution project likely never existed, according to prosecutors.
Co-defendant Winfried Simatupang who was said to be in charge of the phantom project, later claimed he stashed the Rp 40 billion under his bed. During the trial he paid back the money in installments.
Apparently satisfied with the bizarre and dubious under-the- bed theory, the prosecutors refused to investigate the money trail any further.
Nonetheless, the public could still find out if that theory was true through a separate investigation and trial, possibly targeting Golkar.
"It can be done under the political party law if there is enough evidence that Golkar used illicit funds for its campaign," Rudy explained.
However, he said, since Akbar cannot be tried twice for the same charges, other people need to be charged who would be able to uncover the truth.