PDI Perjuangan indecisive on Akbar corruption case
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia's largest party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), has failed to take a final stance on the Rp 40 billion graft case, which allegedly involves Akbar Tandjung.
After a day-long meeting, party spokesman Pramono Anung announced on Tuesday that PDI Perjuangan would allow its legislators at the House of Representatives to take their own stand.
"The party has yet to follow the day-to-day developments before it takes its final stance," said Pramono, who is the party's deputy secretary.
Akbar has been accused of diverting Rp 40 billion in nonbudgetary funds from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to Golkar while he was the state secretary/Cabinet secretary in 1999. He is scheduled to appear at the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday.
Separately, party deputy chairman Roy B. Janis said that Akbar, who is also the Golkar Party chairman and House speaker, had met PDI Perjuangan executives last week but they made no political compromise concerning the scandal.
"We discussed other things. The only thing Akbar mentioned about the Bulog fund scandal (which implicates Akbar) was that 50 House members had put forward a motion, demanding that a special team investigate him," Roy said.
He said the political solution that the 50 legislators had urged was necessary as the legal solution alone would not satisfy the public.
"The public's trust in the judiciary is so low that we are afraid the result would disappoint them. So the investigation by a House special committee is necessary," he said.
In the West Java city of Cirebon, hundreds of students and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) took to the streets on Tuesday, demanding that Akbar resign from his positions in the House and Golkar while he is under investigation.
The protesters, grouped in the Students' Alliance for Justice, marched to the Cirebon legislative council, where they read out their demands.
They also demanded that Golkar be dissolved for allegedly accepting the Bulog funds, while former president Soeharto and his cronies be brought to trial for corruption.
"Dissolution of Golkar is a prerequisite for political reforms. The Bulog scandal has only showed us that Akbar is not qualified to lead the House," the coordinator of the protesters, Egi Bachrudin, said.
Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was implicated in another Bulog fund scandal, said that an investigation by the House team would put Akbar in a difficult position.
"It would be a dilemma for Akbar. If a House special team is set up, it would 'kill' him and if a court of justice finds him guilty of funneling Bulog money to Golkar, the party would be finished," he said in the Central Java city of Purwokerto.
Abdurrahman's party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), initiated the establishment of a House special committee to investigate Akbar.