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Editorial-Akbar-Bulog
Buloggate 2
JP/4/EDIT-22

Buloggate II

Former Golkar Party and House of Representatives member
Bambang Warih Kusuma has a piece of good advice for embattled
House Speaker Akbar Tandjung: Be honest and openly explain where
the Rp 40 billion of money taken out of the coffers of the State
Logistics Agency (Bulog) went, or your political career will be
over.

Indonesians are certainly no strangers to allegations of
corruption on a grand scale taking place in Bulog, the state-
controlled agency whose duty was to see to it that food and other
basic necessities were available in sufficient quantity and at
affordable prices throughout the year for the country's 210
million population. Given the virtual monopoly that the agency
enjoyed and the climate of unbridled corruption that existed in
the days of ex-president Soeharto's New Order regime, such
suspicions are easy to understand although much less easy to
prove.

This time around, however, the case presents us with a number
of additional aspects that certainly deserve some deeper
investigation -- something many in the reformist camp are
currently seeking to pursue and many in the opposite camp are
ardently seeking to block. At stake at the end of it all is
nothing less than the credibility of Akbar Tandjung as the
speaker of the legislature and possibly the future of his Golkar
Party as well.

The case, locally called Buloggate II, involves the
disbursement and use of some Rp 54.6 billion in funds, taken out
of the Bulog coffers between March and September 1999. Rp 10
billion of the money was reportedly handed over to the then
minister of defense/military commander Gen. Wiranto to cover
public security expenditures, and a little over Rp 1.6 billion
was loaned to PT Goro Batara Sakti corporation, a company set up
by, among others, Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala
Putra.

The main bone of contention, however, is the remaining Rp 40
billion (US$3.9 million), which witnesses have said was handed
over to Akbar in his position as state secretary. The money was
disbursed on the orders of then Bulog chief and minister of
industry and trade Rahardi Ramelan, who in his turn gave the
orders reportedly under instruction from then president B.J.
Habibie. It helps to understand the suspicions of foul play if
one remembers that March and April 1999 -- which was when Akbar
reportedly received the checks -- was the period of the run-up to
that year's general election.

Rahardi, who has been named a suspect in the case by the
Attorney General's Office, testified that Akbar took Rp 40
billion of the total and Wiranto Rp 10 billion. In the most
damaging testimony against Akbar so far, Rahardi's deputy at
Bulog, Achmad Ruskandar, made a statement that he personally
handed over the money in three separate checks to Akbar, as
instructed by his former superior, Rahardi Ramelan.

This, however, contradicts earlier statements by Akbar that he
merely witnessed the handing over of the checks by Ruskandar to
Dadang Sukandar, the chairman of the Islamic Raudlatul Jannah
Foundation, which was, supposedly, contracted by Bulog to
distribute food and other basic necessities among the people.
Another inconsistency in Akbar's testimony concerns his statement
that the money was handed over to the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation
at the recommendation of the then coordinating minister for
people's welfare and poverty eradication Haryono Suyono -- a
statement which the latter flatly rejected.

Indonesians will in the coming days no doubt continue to
follow the maze-like trails of this unusual case with a good deal
of interest. In the meantime, it is in the interests of Akbar
himself to listen to good advice and explain the whole affair
honestly and openly. Setting up a legislative committee to look
into it would be a good beginning. As for the legal side, just
let the law take its course.