Deputy governor quizzed over diploma

Deputy governor quizzed over diploma

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

The North Sumatra provincial council's plenary meeting had to be
postponed following tension among council members demanding that
Deputy Governor Rudolf Pardede give an explanation about the
validity of his high school diploma, which some have alleged to
be a fake.

The meeting, which was supposed to hear each of the factions'
final responses over the 2004 provincial budget spending, went on
for five hours before it was agreed that it would be postponed
until Sept. 28.

The council's speaker, Abdul Wahab Dalimunte said the meeting
had to be postponed to cool off the situation as the tension was
making it impossible for the meeting to go on.

The tension started when several factions, such as the
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Reform Star Party (PBR),
questioned the legality of the deputy governor's diploma.

The two factions objected when the meeting's schedule included
a speech by Rudolf on behalf of late governor Rizal Nurdin. They
argued that if he were allowed to deliver the speech, it meant
the council had tacitly agreed on his appointment as acting
governor.

The council has not yet discussed who should be appointed as
acting governor since the governor's term was to end in three
years.

Chairman of the PKS faction, Sigit Pramono Asri, said that his
faction rejected Rudolf because he was still a suspect in the
case of an alleged fake diploma. He said Rudolf was named a
suspect in the case by the police two years ago and his status
had not changed.

Chairman of the PBR faction, Muhammad Rade Syafi'i, said that
he did not deny that Rudolf, based on Law 32/2004 on local
administrations, should be next in line to become governor.

However, Rudolf should be able to properly explain the
legality of his diploma.

"If it (the clarification) is not done, then Rudolf's
leadership would not be effective and can obstruct the province's
development," he said.

Following the death of governor Rizal Nurdin in the tragic
Mandala crash in Medan, protesters flooded the streets to express
their rejection of Rudolf as acting governor.

On Monday, protesters claiming to be from the North Sumatra
People's Front for Justice staged a protest outside the
provincial council, but they were prevented by the police from
entering the building.

Apart from rejecting Rudolf, the protesters also demanded that
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set a date to hold direct
elections for a new governor and deputy governor.

The North Sumatra police on Friday declared that it would
follow up the investigation into Rudolf's alleged fake diploma
and that they had already sent a team of four officers to West
Java town of Sukabumi to investigate the case.

Chief of North Sumatra Police, Insp. Gen. Iwan Pandjiwinata,
urged people to be patient and wait for the investigation to
conclude.

"The police are still investigating the case of the alleged
fake diploma and I hope people will wait for its result," Iwan
said.

The case first emerged when Rudolf failed to include his high
school diploma as he was about to run for deputy governor two
years ago. Instead of including his diploma, Rudolf only included
a piece of a paper, which stated that he studied at SMUK BPK
Penabur high school in Sukabumi.

The story surfaced when the school's principal Martha
Christiawati, whose name was the letter, retracted her statement
and reportedly said in another letter, given to Nusantara
Corruption Watch, that the school had never had a student by the
name of Rudolf Pardede.