Rocky Gerung Attends Nadiem Makarim's Trial in Chromebook Procurement Case
Jakarta – Academic Rocky Gerung, senior actress Christine Hakim, and the Minister of Communication and Informatics from 2014–2019 attended the trial of Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2019–2024, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, at the Corruption Court within the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday.
Met during a break in the proceedings, which involved the examination of the defendant, Rocky said he attended the trial to observe its conduct from the perspective of legal reasoning.
“I teach legal reasoning. I want to know whether this trial is guided by clean legal logic or if there are defects, political rust, ordered rust, and so on. That’s what I actually want to test,” Rocky stated.
According to him, in the Chromebook corruption case implicating Nadiem, the public prosecutors (JPU) are clever but appear fatigued in connecting facts to form evidence.
He exemplified this by linking one concern to the Chromebook corruption case.
The concern in question was when Nadiem brought in a special team for the Chromebook procurement.
Rocky opined that Nadiem’s action was actually lawful and not criminal, as long as the former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology believed there was no one in his ministry with sufficient capacity for the digitalisation procurement.
“So, the prosecutors, as I said earlier, are ‘fatigued’ in turning WhatsApp chats into What’s Wrong. That’s where they fail,” he said.
In the alleged corruption case of the education digitalisation programme involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2019–2022, Nadiem is charged with corruption causing state financial losses of Rp2.18 trillion.
The corruption is alleged to have been committed, among others, by carrying out the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning facilities in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal years not in accordance with the procurement planning and procurement principles.
Nadiem’s actions are charged as being committed jointly with three other defendants in separate trials, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah, and Sri Wahyuningsih, as well as Jurist Tan, who is currently a fugitive.
In detail, the state losses caused amount to Rp1.56 trillion related to the education digitalisation programme at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, as well as US$44.05 million or equivalent to Rp621.39 billion due to the procurement of unnecessary and non-beneficial CDM for the education digitalisation programme.