No clues on alleged political party scam
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The General Election Commission (KPU) is unable to shed any light on an alleged financial scandal involving major political parties during the 1999 polls due to a lack of supporting data, a commission member said on Monday.
Mudji Soetrisno, one of the current 13 KPU members, announced that all of the data, including that on alleged irregularities and the financial report, had been taken by the 48 KPU members at that time.
"Back then each party was represented in the KPU, and as soon as their tenure expired, they cleaned up their offices and took all the data with them," Mudji said after a meeting between KPU delegates with Vice President Hamzah Haz.
He was commenting on the possibility of the KPU providing evidence to support former president Abdurrahman Wahid's claim that at least 10 political parties had received money taken from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).
Abdurrahman revealed the alleged scam while the Attorney General's Office was reluctant to dig deep into reports that Rp 40 billion belonging to Bulog was allegedly misused by former state/minister of secretary Akbar Tandjung months before the 1999 elections. It is believed the money went to Golkar, which Akbar chairs.
The trial of Akbar, who is the House of Representatives speaker, will begin next Monday,
Another member of the KPU, Imam B. Prasodjo, said the current commission had never seen reports on the organization of the 1999 elections.
"The computers were rented and as soon as the electoral process was completed, they were taken away along with the cables. Basically, there is nothing left for us," Imam said.
Mudji, who is also a former member of the Elections Supervisory Committee, said that the committee had gathered data of the irregularities and presented them to the Supreme Court, but results of the investigation remain unknown.
"So there are two ways to verify any report of irregularities during the 1999 elections: ask the Supreme Court or force the former KPU members to return all the reports," Mudji added.
Nazaruddin Syamsoeddin, KPU's chairman, underlined that law enforcers had the authority to do so and KPU would need the data in 2003 when it had to verify the requirements for certain political parties to contest the next election.
Former KPU member Jacob Tobing of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) denied Mudji's allegation, saying that the current KPU must keep the financial reports of each party.
"The audit was conducted under the name of KPU and the team had the report. No party has taken the report," Jacob told The Jakarta Post.
"Such a report is state property and is considered an important document. How dare former KPU members take it?"
Alimarwan Hanan, secretary-general of the United Development Party (PPP), vehemently denied that his party received any Bulog funds in 1999.
"Speaking in my capacity as the secretary-general of PPP, I'm certain that my party did not receive any Bulog money," said Alimarwan, who is also minister of cooperatives, small and medium enterprises, after meeting President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace on Monday.
PPP has rejected the establishment of the special House committee as the party regards Akbar's case to be a criminal case and therefore should be solved through a legal process.
Thus far, PPP has not considered filing suit against former president Abdurrahman Wahid, as PPP does not regard his comments detrimental to its image, Alimarwan said.