KPU urged to file police report over 77 unreturned vehicles
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An activist has urged the General Election Commission (KPU) to file a report with the police against recalcitrant political party officials and former KPU members who have refused to return 77 official vehicles belonging to the state.
"The KPU should stop being so nice with the party officials and former KPU members, who obviously have no intention of returning the cars. This is definitely stealing, and this case must be brought to the attention of the police," the coordinator of the non-governmental organization Government Watch (Gowa), Farid Faqih, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The 77 vehicles, valued at more than Rp 5 billion and ranging from Kijang vans to motorcycles, were borrowed by 55 former KPU members and political party officials during the 1999 elections.
"This is the KPU's own fault. It should wake up and learn that the cars will not be returned unless legal action is taken," Farid said.
The vehicles form part of a long list of items lent out by the KPU during the 1999 election. Other items include 6,000 typewriters, most of which have since been returned.
The general secretariat of the KPU, which is in charge of the crucial task of administering the polls, comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs, and is vulnerable to political, legal and financial interventions by the ministry.
Officials who have not returned their vehicles to the KPU include two retired directors general of social and political affairs at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dunidja and Sutoyo.
Others include former KPU chief Gen. (ret) Rudini, the Golkar Party's deputy secretary-general Mahadi Sinambela, Mrs. C. Sitompul of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and spokesman to former president Abdurrahman Wahid, Yahya C. Staquf.
KPU member Safdec Yusacc said the Inspectorate-General of the Ministry of Home Affairs was scheduled to soon question the former KPU members who had not returned the cars.
"Should case files officially be opened following this questioning, the careers of these men will be badly effected. There could be administrative sanctions," Yusacc said on Friday.
Minister of Home Affairs Instruction No. 24/1996 stipulates that those suspected of wrongdoing should be given the chance to settle the matter amicably either by returning the asset in question in its original condition, or, if it is lost, by paying for it in cash over a period of two years.
The 1996 ministerial instruction was a follow-up to Ministry of Home Affairs Regulation No. 9/1996 on the methods to be used in dealing with state losses within the Ministry of Home Affairs.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that among the ludicrous excuses given by former KPU members and political party officials were, "my children still need to use the cars."
Former KPU members and party officials wrote a letter last year to President Megawati Soekarnoputri in the hope that she would allow them to keep the vehicles.
While the KPU members hope Megawati will say no, Farid Faqih said that KPU must not waste time by waiting for Megawati's response, and should instead take action.