DKPP Issues Stern Warning to KPU Member Over Helicopter Use

The Election Organiser Ethics Council (DKPP) has imposed a stern warning sanction on KPU RI member Parsadaan Harahap after he was found to have violated the Election Organiser Code of Ethics (KEPP). “Imposing a stern warning sanction on the first respondent, Parsadaan Harahap, as a member of the General Election Commission, effective from the reading of this decision,” said Council Chair Heddy Lugito during the verdict reading for case number 10-PKE-DKPP/VI/2026 at the DKPP Courtroom in Jakarta on Wednesday. In its considerations, the council assessed that the first respondent lacked a sense of ethics and good governance by accepting an offer and subsequently using a helicopter as a mode of transport for the inauguration of the Voting Organising Group (KPPS) in Cidaun District, Cianjur Regency, on 25 January 2024. Council member I Dewa Kade Wiarsa Raka Sandi stated that he saw no other reason for the use of the helicopter provided by the West Java Provincial KPU other than the urgency of the first respondent’s schedule to attend an event in Bengkulu Province. “The density or clash of a public official’s official schedule cannot automatically be transferred into a burden on public finances through the use of extraordinary facilities. Public officials are required to carry out rational prioritisation, assessing the possibility of delegation, schedule adjustments, or other forms of task execution that can proportionally achieve institutional objectives,” he said. Raka Sandi assessed that in conditions of disaster, isolation, safety threats, or non-negotiable urgency of election stages, the use of a helicopter could be justified or necessary. However, according to him, such objective conditions were not convincingly revealed in the case in question. The first respondent’s excuse that he felt there was no ethical issue because a DKPP member was also present on the trip could not be justified. Raka Sandi emphasised that ethical accountability is personally attached to the office holder and cannot be transferred to the presence of another official. “The presence of an ethics enforcement agency official does not turn an originally improper act into a proper one, just as their absence does not automatically prove a violation. Election organisers are required to have the ability for independent ethical judgement regarding their official actions,” he stressed. Thus, the first respondent was proven to have violated Articles 2, 7, and 15 letter a of DKPP Regulation Number 2 of 2017 concerning the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for General Election Organisers. In the same case, the DKPP Council 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 the same articles. The second respondent was deemed unprofessional and unaccountable, and violated the principles of decency and propriety by using the helicopter to Cidaun District without questioning, reminding, objecting, or recommending a more reasonable alternative mode of transport to the relevant officials at the West Java Provincial KPU. The second respondent was known to have accompanied the first respondent in the helicopter under the pretext that his position oversaw human resources and had an interest in the formation, inauguration, training, and supervision of ad hoc bodies. “The second respondent’s attitude is like the proverb ‘throwing a stone and hiding one’s hand,’ or in other words, wanting to enjoy the use of the helicopter but not wanting to be responsible when a problem arises; he should have set an example for his subordinates,” said Council member Ratna Dewi Pettalolo. Meanwhile, the third respondent, Bernard Dermawan Sutrisno, as the Secretary General of the KPU RI, had his good name rehabilitated in the same case as he was not proven to have violated the KEPP.