House silent over high-profile graft cases
House silent over high-profile graft cases
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives (DPR) sent out the wrong signal in
their anticorruption drive on Monday by taking a weak stance over
the termination -- by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) -- of
the investigation into high-profile graft cases.
After a lengthy meeting to hear the explanations of the
Attorney General M.A. Rahman -- pertaining to big-time corruption
cases involving former president Soeharto's cronies, Prajogo
Pangestu and Joko Ramiadji, and his daughter Siti "Tutut"
Hardiyanti Rukmana and also the escape of tycoon Samadikun
Hartono -- the House Commission II on legal affairs issued the
vague statement that the AGO needed to renew its commitment to
enforce the law.
Commission II also agreed to relegate the task of further
discussing the corruption cases to the commission's internal
team.
"We throw our support behind the AGO's anticorruption drive,"
Chairman of Commission II Agustin Teras Narang of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said, concluding
the session.
Earlier in the hearing, Rahman told the lawmakers that the
decision to drop corruption cases against Soeharto's cronies and
daughter was due to lack of evidence against them.
The investigation into the role of business tycoon Prajogo in
an alleged mark-up case -- pertaining to the Industrial Forest
Estate (HTI) in South Sumatra -- was halted in June after his
office had established that the state suffered no losses, Rahman
said.
Prajogo -- as the director of HTI developer PT Menara Hutan
Buana -- was declared a corruption suspect after he had allegedly
marked up the size of lands managed by his company to 193,500
hectares from the original 118,000 hectares in order to procure
more reforestation funds.
He said the accusation was proven to be unfounded, as the
latest aerial survey by the National Survey and Charting
Coordination Agency (Bakosurtanal) showed that there was no mark
up in the reforestation work carried out by Prajogo's company.
As for Djoko Ramiadji -- the director of toll road company PT
Marga Nurindo Bhakti -- he was exonerated from further legal
prosecution after AGO investigators found that he did not sign a
falsified commercial paper on the development of the Cawang-
Tanjung Priok and Pondok Pinang-Jagorawi toll roads (JORR) in
Jakarta, which started in the early 1990s.
Rahman said that in Tutut's case, investigators found no
irregularities in the failed construction of fuel pipelines.
In the case of Samadikun Harsono -- who was sentenced to four
years in prison for embezzling Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support
-- the attorney general said that the prosecutors had followed
the proper legal procedures in executing the Supreme Court
decision.
However, a number of Commission II members resented the AGO's
decision to drop the corruption charges.
Firman Jaya Daeli of PDI Perjuangan said the decision was
proof that the AGO had failed to meet the expectations of the
public who wanted to see justice upheld.
Fellow lawmakers Mutammimul Ula from the Reform faction said
the AGO had not done enough in its drive against corruption.
"I have noted that in the past year, 15 cases of corruption
have been exonerated by judges. I have come to the conclusion
that most of the prosecutors have not done their jobs properly as
they have not filed lawsuits based on strong supporting
evidence," he said.