The Star:
Prabowo’s bold corruption crusade
By Johan Jaaffar
Wednesday, 01 Jan 2025
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President’s proposal seeks to offer pardons in exchange for returning stolen assets but can it heal Indonesia’s deep-rooted graft crisis?
President Prabowo Subianto told the corrupt ones to give back what they had stolen. In return, he will pardon them.
Do it quietly and the law will spare them, he told Indonesian students in Cairo, Egypt last week.
Prabowo has made it a crusade to combat corruption.
It has been part of his election manifesto.
In fact, on the first day in office, he warned that he would hunt those taking bribes even to Antarctica.
The statement in Cairo elicited mostly negative responses.
Many believed giving amnesty to corruptors is counter-productive, in fact harming the country’s effort in fighting corruption.
Some legal experts even argued that such a move is against the spirit of the prevailing anti-corruption law.
The law mandates that returning state losses will not eliminate the crime.
The public too has been sceptical about how Prabowo could achieve his ambitious plan considering there are still loopholes in the current anti-graft laws.
For starters, President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo has been accused of slowing, in fact undermining, the fight against corruption.
He engineered a Bill revising Law No 30/2002 curtailing the powers of the Corruption Eradication Commission better known by its Indonesian acronym KPK, which was easily passed by the House of Representatives (DPR) on Sept 17, 2019.
So not surprisingly policymakers have yet to pass the long over-due asset forfeiture Bill to repatriate stolen assets.
The idea of perampasan aset (asset forfeiture) has been in gestation for the entire length of Jokowi’s rule.
In fact, it was dropped from the DPR’s priority legislation list since 2010.
Many observers believed unless and until such a law is in place, Prabowo’s crusade will have little impact.
There has been scepticism in the air to bring the perpetrators to justice.
To begin with, recent cases about corrupt judges exposed a judicial system that many believed was rotten to the core.
Just take the case of Ronald Tannur, the son of a former member of DPR who was accused of killing his girlfriend, Dini Sera Afrianti, on Oct 4, 2023.
Shockingly, despite all the evidence pointing towards Ronald he was found not guilty by three judges.
The uproar caused KPK to investigate and what they found sent shockwaves throughout the nation.
The investigators discovered 20 billion rupiah in cash from the judges and even 51kg of gold bullion in the possession of a former court official believed to be the “agent” for the father of the accused and the judges.
Fighting corruption has always been a complex matter in Indonesia.
And of late there have been accusations that KPK has been used as a tool against the enemies of those in power.
Hardly two weeks after Prabowo was in power, Thomas (Tom) Lembong, Anies Baswedan’s co-captain during the February presidential race, was charged by Indonesia’s Attorney General Office (AGO).
He was accused of issuing import permits for red sugar crystals nine years ago, an act that five other ministers in the same portfolio have committed after him.
Tom is the money-man for Anies, perceived as the most dangerous man by Prabowo in his bid for re-election in 2029 and a nightmare for Jokowi if his son Gibran Rakabuming Raka has any aspiration to go for presidency.
The latest case involving Hasto Kristiyanto, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary-general certainly raised a lot of questions.
Again, many accused Jokowi’s dirty hands in KPK’s move to make Hasto a suspect.
It happened hardly a week after the party expelled Jokowi, Gibran and Bobby Nasution, Jokowi’s son-in-law.
The bad blood between Jokowi and the matriarch of Indonesian politics, Megawati Sukarnoputri who is the head of PDI-P is at the boiling point.
It is a nine-year case involving a former DPR member from the party, Harun Masiku, now a fugitive.
Remember Airlangga Hartarto, the head of the Golkar party who suddenly resigned to give way to Bahlul Lahadalia, Jokowi’s trusted lieutenant?
Many believed he had to give up the position for fear of being hauled up for cases he was involved in as the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs during Jokowi’s second term.
He is, however, retained by Prabowo in somewhat the same capacity.
The people too have been sceptical on how justice has been meted out in corruption cases.
Take another high-profile case of Harvey Moeis.
He is said to be the super agent on behalf of a private company to facilitate illegal mining in the state-owned company’s concession.
In total, the case has caused the people of Indonesia almost 300 trillion rupiah.
It is the biggest corruption case in the history of Indonesia.
AGO has asked Moeis to be held in prison for 12 years and a hefty fine. But three judges sentenced him to six years and six months and a compensation of 210 billion rupiah.
The judges found the 12-year prison term and the fine suggested by AGO as “too severe”.
Even Prabowo found the verdict unusual.
In a session with stakeholders in preparation for national and regional development, Jokowi cynically mentioned that 50 years should be the right verdict.
Again, the public was incensed and netizens had their field day.
Someone came out with a digital poster that went viral claiming “Give us Rp300 trillion, we are ready for jail”.
All the while Moeis and his famous actress wife Sandra Dewi have been flaunting their wealth on social media.
They live a glamorous lifestyle and expose richness beyond the imagination of millions of Indonesians.
I can understand why Prabowo’s suggestion to pardon the corrupt if they return their ill-gotten gains is a hard sell.
The writer is a veteran journalist. He was formerly chairman of the Consultative and Prevention Panel of the MACC. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
Tags / Keywords:Prabowo Subianto , corruption , Johan Jaaffar , comment , columnist
Johan Jaaffar
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
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