More difficult times await Hamid after Helsinki trip
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Bandung
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin will have a tough task ahead when he leads the government's negotiators in peace talks with Acehnese leaders in Helsinki on Thursday.
But a more difficult time awaits him at home as he will face questioning in connection with a graft case involving the General Elections Commission (KPU) -- of which he was a prominent member before being appointed minister.
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas said on Tuesday that the antigraft body had sent a summons to Hamid, who departed later in the day for Helsinki.
"We will not investigate him (Hamid) before May 31. Based on his schedule, he will be in Helsinki for about five days, therefore his questioning will take place after he gets back here," Erry told The Jakarta Post.
Erry declined to speculate about the status of Hamid before the questioning takes place.
A former KPU member, Hamid has been linked to the high-profile graft case at the national elections organizer.
Several suspects have said that all KPU members, including Hamid, received US$105,000 in kickbacks from companies that won tenders from the commission to supply elections materials.
State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Hamid asked for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's permission on Monday to attend the fourth round of talks with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki. The talks are scheduled to begin on Thursday.
"The President gave him permission because the talks with GAM were scheduled long before this, while as of today (Monday) the KPK has yet to issue a summons for Hamid," Yusril said.
Hamid is the chief negotiator for the government delegation at the talks with GAM, which are aimed at ending decades of the armed conflict between troops and rebels.
The government delegation also include State Minister for Communications and Information Sofyan A. Djalil and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Social Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto. The delegation is expected to arrive back in Jakarta next week.
However, Yusril said the government would respond quickly should the KPK officially name Hamid a suspect and recommend that the President suspend him from his Cabinet post.
Susilo left for Washington on Tuesday to begin state and working visits to the United States, Japan and Vietnam. He is scheduled to return home on June 3.
Responding to the imminent investigation into Hamid, Vice President Jusuf Kalla expressed his belief that the minister was clean.
"The Supreme Audit Agency report on bribery involving KPU issued last month did not mention him, and he quit working for the KPU last October. In regard to the kickbacks, I have personally asked him whether he accepted any money and he said no," Kalla said during a Golkar Party function in Bandung on Sunday.
"I believe he did not receive the money," the Golkar party leader added about his fellow party member.
Kalla said that he would leave the matter to the legal system, which presumes a person innocent until the courts say otherwise.
"As long as a court has not found a citizen, including state officials, guilty, we have to believe he or she is innocent," Kalla said.
He said it was a good sign of progress in the antigraft campaign that state officials were being named suspects or being jailed for graft. He added that such cases would prove to be an effective deterrent.