Guess What? Moh. Mahfud M.D.

Less than two months after being appointed Minister of Defense, Moh. Mahfud M.D. had been disturbed by two mysterious letters.

The first one was sent directly to his wife, Zaizatun Nihayati, a week after he was sworn in in August.

"The letter said that I became a minister because I had been having an affair with the sender of the letter for six years," Mahfud said, adding that the sender ended the letter with a sentence saying "you know for sure who I am."

The letter's stamp showed that it was sent from Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta, he told a press conference in Yogyakarta last Saturday. "Thank God my wife didn't buy it. She knows where I have been for the last six years. I went nowhere."

The second letter was from a man claiming be a member of the military named Navis, accusing him of spending Rp 217 million of his ministry's funds to finance his inauguration ceremony as a new professor at the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Islamic University.

"The letter was sent to Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and rectors of all universities in Yogyakarta," the father of three said.

He said the ceremony was financed by the university, while costs for holding the thanksgiving party, which was around Rp 22 million, came from his own pocket.

"One of the reasons why I was put in this position was to eradicate KKN (collusion, corruption and nepotism) practices in the ministry. If I commit corruption for the sake of even one rupiah, I will not have the moral right to do so." (swa)