Politicians queried over backing for PT QSAR
Politicians queried over backing for PT QSAR
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Amid public demand for moral accountability, politicians have
raised eyebrows for apparent moves to slow legal proceedings
against PT Qurnia Subur Alam Raya (QSAR), a profit sharing
agribusiness company which collapsed recently.
Achmad Ali, a senior lecturer at Hanasuddin University,
expressed his suspicions why some of the country's leading
politicians had expressed support for the company's executives,
who are now being detained at the Sukabumi Police precinct, West
Java.
"If we are adamant about upholding the law, the investigation
should proceed.
"The police have charged QSAR's executives with violating the
Criminal Code and the banking law by embezzling public funds. So
it'd be better for us to let the investigation continue until the
court decides whether or not the charges are valid," said Achmad,
one of 21 people elected to the National Commission on Human
Rights.
Fraud carries a four-year sentence according to the Criminal
Code, while the bank law violation carries a maximum penalty of
fie years in jail.
People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais was the
latest among public figures to join the polemic over whether QSAR
has committed any crime.
Amien, who chairs National Mandate Party (PAN), suggested on
Monday that police stop efforts to bring the company's executives
to court although he acknowledged that Ramli Araby, QSAR
president director and others in the company's top management,
had misused Rp 500 billion in public funds raised from 6,800
investors.
"I know that QSAR's leaders have manipulated the investors'
fund, but I think it would be better for the police to freeze the
company's accounts to repay the investors," Amien said.
Amien further expressed his skepticism that law enforcers
would proceed with the investigation in line with the public's
expectations.
"I'm not personally referring to Pak Amien Rais, but perhaps
politicians, as well as other state officials, are trying to
defend QSAR because they wish to protect the funds they have
invested in the company," Achmad said.
Since the firm collapsed, many odd stories have circulated,
including rumors about Ramli's links to the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM), which the Aceh native businessman has denied.
Meanwhile, some people in Sukabumi said that Ramli's success
could not be separated from his good relationship with the local
authorities. Ramli helped the local government build a private
university, a housing complex for local administration officials
in Pelabuhan Ratu, and a big Mosque in Sasagaran village.
National figures, including Vice President Hamzah Haz, deputy
Speaker of the House of Representatives Tosari Widjaja, former
vice president Try Sutrisno, are among some of the prominent
personalities Ramli claims had visited the company and gave it
moral support.
Tosari, also a legislator of the National Development Party
(PPP), had even signed the inscription stone marking the start of
development of Al Abror Mosque at Sasagaran village built by
QSAR, some 10 kilometers from Kadudampit village, in January
2001.
Other signatories were Sukabumi regent Maman Sulaeman and
Ramli himself.
When Ramli was detained at Sukabumi Police detention center
last Friday, a group of PAN members staged a rally in front of
the police station, asking for fair treatment for him.
Hamzah Haz, also from the PPP, even proposed a takeover by the
government on the grounds that the company was "a legitimate
business that needed the government's help."