Witness Reveals All Online Meetings with Nadiem Were Banned from Being Recorded
Deswitha Arvinchi, a secretary at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology during the 2019–2024 period, revealed a prohibition that applied during online meetings with former Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim. Deswitha stated that online meetings were not permitted to be recorded.
She made the disclosure while testifying as a witness in the alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (23/2/2026). The defendant in the trial is Nadiem.
Prosecutors initially asked about online meetings with Google. Deswitha explained that every meeting with external parties began with a formal letter requesting an audience with Nadiem.
“Then you also arranged an online Zoom meeting with Google. How did that come about?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes, so this appeared to be a continuation. Every request for external meetings always came with a formal letter from the external party to meet the Minister. Usually, the Minister would issue a disposition through the application, or sometimes after reading the request letter, he would send me a chat message. He would message me to schedule a meeting with Google based on their request,” Deswitha explained.
The prosecutor probed further into who attended the meetings with Google. Deswitha confirmed that one of the participants was a suspect who is now a fugitive — Jurist Tan, a former special staff member of Nadiem.
“Let me name them: in the virtual calendar there was Jurist Tan, Ibrahim Arief, Nadia, Yeti, Caesar, Randi, Shiantanu, and the Minister of Education and Culture. The meeting topic listed in the virtual calendar was Ministry of Education and Culture–Google. Is that correct?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yes,” Deswitha replied.
The prosecutor then asked about the prohibition on recording the online meetings. Deswitha stated that the recording ban applied to all of Nadiem’s online meetings.
“Was there a directive from the Minister regarding his Zoom meetings? Were they allowed to be recorded, or what was the instruction?” the prosecutor asked.
“All of the Minister’s online meetings were indeed not recorded, Sir. It wasn’t just this meeting, but all of his meetings,” Deswitha answered.
“The directive was that meetings with the Minister must not be recorded?” the prosecutor asked.
“That is correct, Sir,” Deswitha replied.
The prosecutor then asked whether Deswitha had ever defied the directive and made a recording. Deswitha claimed she always worked professionally.
“What if you didn’t comply? What if you went against the Minister? Like saying, ‘I want to record this, Sir’ — you wouldn’t dare do that?” the prosecutor asked.
“I worked professionally, Sir,” Deswitha responded.
In this case, Nadiem is charged with corruption related to the procurement of Chromebook laptops during his tenure as Education and Culture Minister. The project is alleged to have caused state losses of Rp 2.1 trillion.
Nadiem had filed a preliminary objection. The judge rejected the objection and ordered the trial to proceed to the evidentiary stage.
Besides Nadiem, three other defendants are involved in the case. They are Mulyatsyah, who served as Director of Junior Secondary Schools at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2020; Sri Wahyuningsih, who served as Director of Primary Schools at the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Secondary Education from 2020 to 2021; and Ibrahim Arief, also known as Ibam, who served as a consultant.