DKPP Issues Stern Warning to KPU Member Over Helicopter Use
Jakarta (ANTARA) — The Election Organisers Honour Council (DKPP) has imposed a stern warning sanction on Parsadaan Harahap, a member of the General Elections Commission (KPU RI), after he was found to have violated the Election Organisers Code of Ethics (KEPP).
“Imposing a stern warning sanction on the first respondent, Parsadaan Harahap, as a member of the General Elections Commission, effective from the reading of this verdict,” said Panel Chair Heddy Lugito during the reading of the verdict in a single case, numbered 10-PKE-DKPP/VI/2026, at the DKPP hearing room in Jakarta on Wednesday.
In its considerations, the panel found that the first respondent lacked a sense of ethics and good governance by accepting an offer and then using a helicopter as transport for the inauguration of the Voting Organiser Group (KPPS) in Cidaun District, Cianjur Regency, on 25 January 2024.
Panel member I Dewa Kade Wiarsa Raka Sandi said he saw no reason for the use of the helicopter provided by the West Java Provincial KPU other than the respondent’s time constraints, as he was due to attend an event in Bengkulu Province.
“A busy schedule or clashing official engagements of an official cannot automatically be shifted onto the public purse through the use of extraordinary facilities. Public officials are required to set rational priorities, consider possible delegation, adjust schedules, or find other forms of carrying out duties that proportionally achieve institutional objectives,” he said.
Raka Sandi considered that in situations of disaster, isolation, threats to safety, or election stages that cannot be postponed, the use of a helicopter could be justified or necessary. However, he said such objective conditions were not convincingly demonstrated in this case.
The first respondent’s claim that he felt there was no ethical issue because a DKPP member also joined the trip was also deemed inadmissible. Raka Sandi emphasised that ethical accountability attaches personally to the officeholder and cannot be transferred to the presence of another official.
“The presence of an official from the ethics enforcement body does not turn an improper act into a proper one, just as their absence does not automatically prove a violation occurred. Election organisers are required to exercise independent ethical judgement over their official actions,” he stressed.
The first respondent was thus proven to have violated Article 2, Article 7, and Article 15 letter (a) of DKPP Regulation Number 2 of 2017 on the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for General Election Organisers.
In the same case, the DKPP panel also imposed a stern warning sanction on the second respondent, Abdullah Sapi’i, a member of the West Java Provincial KPU. He was proven to have violated Article 2, Article 7, and Article 15 letter (a) of DKPP Regulation Number 2 of 2017 on the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for General Election Organisers.
The second respondent was judged to have been unprofessional and unaccountable, and to have violated the principles of propriety and appropriateness in the use of the helicopter to Cidaun District, Cianjur Regency, by failing to question, remind, object to, or recommend a more reasonable alternative mode of transport to the relevant officials at the West Java Provincial KPU.
The second respondent was known to have joined the first respondent on the helicopter in question, on the grounds that his portfolio covered human resources and that he had an interest in the formation, inauguration, training, and supervision of ad hoc bodies.
“The second respondent’s attitude is like the proverb of throwing a stone whilst hiding one’s hand — in other words, wanting to enjoy the use of the helicopter but unwilling to take responsibility when problems arise. He should have set an example for those under him,” said panel member Ratna Dewi Pettalolo.
Meanwhile, the third respondent, Bernard Dermawan Sutrisno, Secretary-General of KPU RI, had his good name rehabilitated in the same case, as he was not proven to have violated the KEPP.
The hearing was chaired by Heddy Lugito as Panel Chair, assisted by panel members including J. Kristiadi, I Dewa Kade Wiarsa Raka Sandi, and Ratna Dewi Pettalolo.