KPK Selection Process: When a Serial Killer Chose His Own Team of Detectives

OVERLOOKED. Yunus Husein, the former chief of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) was not chosen by lawmakers to lead Indonesia's top anticorruption body allegedly due to his fearsome reputation as "the man who knew the balance of your bank account".  

(photo by Arief Manurung)

The House of Representatives complex at Senayan, Jakarta became a stage of another failure of democracy after House lawmakers from Commission III overseeing legal affairs named its four new leaders for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

When I attended the voting process on Friday last week, it was a strange view that there were few –or if even any– journalists, NGO representatives, commission’s staffs, and even security guards who were seen clapping in the midst of noisy applause and loud celebration among the lawmakers after the Commission’s chairman read aloud the result.

The disappointment of the neutrals who witnessed the voting process and follow the issue thoroughly was clear: the current KPK composition is a massive letdown, and the lawmakers’ decision did not represent them and their fellow Indonesian people.

The appointee of lawyer Abraham Samad, National Police Commission member Adnan Pandupraja, and senior prosecutor Zulkarnaen to fill the KPK top posts had raised eyebrows on whether the House lawmakers have already done their main task of representing the public properly.

The government selection committee tasked to assess the eight candidates merely placed Abraham, Zulkarnaen, and Pandu as underdogs in the race, placing the three of them as the fifth-, sixth, and seventh-best candidate in its ranking, respectively.

There is no doubt that the naming of lawyer and antigraft activist Bambang Widjojanto was no more than "sweetener" to play down public controversy in the issue. In rational way of thinking, there is no explainable reason for the lawmakers to eliminate the flawless Bambang, who the selection committee assessed as its best candidate and thus was viewed as the heavy favorite in the race among the public.

Although it could hardly be described as the worst composition for KPK, the current one is without doubt would be a setback for the country's top anticorruption commission.

Among the five new executives of KPK (the four new executives plus the incumbent Busyro Muqoddas), the absence of a financial and auditing expert is hardly understandable.

In many occasions, lawmakers repeatedly uttered about the importance for KPK to focus not only on prosecuting corruptors but also on preventing corruption practices to occur. While prosecuting would punish corruptors and instigate fears among the people, preventive measures, the lawmakers argued, would make people who want to commit corruption were “unable” to do such practices and reduce corruption tally in the long run.

But why does the KPK’s new five executives comprise one prosecutor (Zulkarnaen) and four lawyers (Abraham, Bambang Busyro, Pandupraja), yet there was not any expert who has background in financial and auditing investigation?

Among the eight names proposed by the government selection panel to the House, there were two candidates who met the criterion: Yunus Husein, the former chief of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK); and Handoyo Sudrajat, the KPK internal affairs director. The two were rated highly and deemed as frontrunners, too, as Yunus and Handoyo was ranked by the selection panel as the second- and fourth-best candidates in its ranking, respectively.

If lawmakers were talking about preventive measures, then they should definitely choose person with expertise in auditing and financial investigations. They could, without doubt, strengthen the KPK’s supervision system or even established a new scheme that could limit the corruptors’ assets-movement –and surely potential corruptors would have to think twice to commit fraudulent practices as they had their bank accounts watched closely.

While lawmakers argued that the rejection of Yunus was related to his close ties with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the ruling Democratic Party; but this argument is certainly baseless. In this leaked document of the candidates’ review, the selection panel rated Yunus as the third-highest candidate in the attribute of “independency” after Bambang and Abdullah.

How could Yunus –who garnered 105 compared to the newly elected KPK chief Abraham who earned 94 in “independency”– was rated highly in that criterion if he leaned to certain political figure and thus was not independent?   

In addition to the inexplicable omission of both Yunus and Handoyo, the exclusion of a bold figure such as Abdullah Hehamahua was also a loss in immeasurable extent. He was valiant, independent, and –as an officer at the KPK– knew exactly the inside problems of the KPK and how to fix them.

The only ones who dislike a great anticorruption fighter like Abdullah perhaps would be the corruptors themselves. Portraying Abdullah as a fearless figure would be an understatement. He was described at his best with his own words, which he uttered during his fit-and-proper test with the lawmakers: "I want to be murdered by corruptors."

From the politics-ridden selection process for the new KPK leaders, we could see the major flaw of our widely applauded democracy. That is, when the personal interests of our directly elected politicians set aside the country’s anticorruption agenda, which in fact should become the main priority.

In Indonesia, it was hilarious to know that the corruptors themselves were given the mandate to choose the leaders for the country’s anticorruption body. It is very much the same with a serial killer who has the authority to choose the team of detectives that would investigate his case –surely, it would be rational choice for him to pick the less-skilled detectives to avoid getting caught. 

The Genius Gayus is Indonesia's Person of the Year

COOLER THAN ME? In 2010 no other Indonesian making more headlines in newspapers' front pages than Gayus Tambunan, as his ability to defy Indonesia's law constantly amazed the people throughout the year.

American magazine TIME recently chooses Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as its 2010 Person of the Year –an award for person who the magazine perceives as delivering the biggest impact for the world society throughout 2010.

Some identify the award as simply America’s Person of the Year, as the magazine shrugged off its own online poll and chose a less popular American (Zuckerberg) over an Australian whistleblower named Julian Assange, who brings world leaders in tremor with his leaked secrets and wins 20 times more votes than Zuckerberg on TIME official website.

Are we looking for Indonesia’s Person of the Year? Because Gayus Tambunan –a junior tax officer who reportedly possesses bank account and assets worth of 100 billion rupiah (US$ 11 million) that stacks in various forms from posh house to his wife’s luxurious jewelries– would definitely stand a chance.

Sometimes, it’s the crisis that drives significant changes and improvements, and on very rare occasions we should thank someone who brings the crisis to us in the first place.

Scoundrels give birth to heroes, and crises path way to improvement. With his acts, Gayus Tambunan obliquely fixes Indonesia’s notoriously corrupt administration by exposing the weakness of Indonesia’s law and judicial system, which leaves many top-tier government officials from Finance Ministry, Justice and Human Rights Ministry, The National Police, to the President himself, red-faced.

While The Beatles once said that money can’t buy you love, in 2010 Gayus has proved the opposite, as his money power had won the hearts of officials from his detention center as well as from the immigration office who help him defy the law.

If the National Police members and Justice and Human Rights officials could turn back time, perhaps they would not choose to arrest Gayus when he fled to Singapore in March and left him alone instead. The arrest of Gayus was merely a beginning of what would be a huge exposure that slapped those organizations right in their faces, pushing them harder to work on the reform programs that they always half-heartedly implement.

For government officials whose departments are embroiled in Gayus’s play, it has been a fast-pacing, intrigue-plagued drama since:

Had Gayus not been born in this world to become a tax office hitman and played mockery on Indonesia’s law system, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar would not move a finger to reform his severely corrupt and dilapidated departments, whose performance he frequently boasts as “successful”.

Had he not bribed the prison guards and police officers in charge at his detention center (and got busted later), the hidden and long-concealed defects of law enforcement in Indonesia would not be revealed to the national and international community alike: That is, rich and high-profile criminal in Indonesia have always had the ability to disregard justice and buy themselves out of the prison if the price is right

Finally, had Gayus not disguised himself out to Bali, Macau, and Kuala Lumpur in 2010, the system on Indonesia’s prisons and immigration bureau would not have been fixed and transformed like we are watching right now.

It’s true that the government’s efforts in promoting justice equality for all Indonesians are still in progress following Gayus’s case, and the outcome is still far from perfect until now.

But thanks to Gayus, some minor progresses in Indonesia’s law enforcement start to materialize. If wealthy outlaws want to use the “temporary release service” for their holiday now, for example, at least they will have to pay much higher price –without doubt now detention center officials are facing higher risks to get caught, as the public’s scrutiny about the issue is getting higher than before.

To be our Person of the Year, Gayus has no reason to feel timid of the smart, Harvard-educated person like Zuckerberg. According to inside sources at the tax office interviewed by The Jakarta Post journalist, Gayus is indeed a genius himself as he reportedly boasts an extraordinarily high IQ of 147.

While his acts look clever and dull at the same time, and hence may not necessarily reflect his IQ, they are indeed improving this country in many aspects –both for the short-run and long-run

For leaking to the public about the truth that has long been cloaked, for forcing disgraced government officials to implement a larger level of bureaucratic reform, and for giving the media and public some entertainment to savor; Mr. Gayus Halomoan Partahanan Tambunan is an obvious choice for Indonesia’s Person of the Year of 2010.

This article was published in The Jakarta Post on Monday, January 10 2010

The National Police: Just How Bad Can They Get?

The 1998 movie titling The Negotiator tells a story about denigrated police lieutenant (Samuel L. Jackson) who is framed by a top-brass police officer because of his awareness of money embezzlement case, which involves many police officers in Chicago Police Department.

In the efforts of proving his innocence and unfolding the police corruption case, he storms the police building and holds several police officers and civilians as his hostage. However, the hostages are successfully rescued in the end, with Jackson impressively fleeing the crime scene.

“You must have some idea,” said a police officer who investigates one of the civilian hostages to look for clue where Jackson is going.

“I’d really like to help, but my lips are sealed,” the civilian replied. “Frankly I don’t trust any of you; I’m very disappointed in all of you.”

After listening to those lines, I was sure that many Indonesians would agree that the setting of the movie will be more suitable if it takes place in one of the departments in Indonesia’s National Police, instead of Chicago Police Department in US.

I imagine a situation where the National Police really sues a journalist from Tempo magazine and that journalist runs away and becomes fugitive –if I know something about his existence and I were ever investigated, I would utter exactly the same words as that civilian from the movie does.

Observing the National Police’s attitude at the moment, it is not difficult to identify why it is currently considered as the least admired institution in Indonesia. In addition to its notorious status as the most corrupt organization in the country, perhaps it can also be perceived as one of the worst government institutions when it comes to the commitment to serve the people.

Truthfully speaking, I hate everything that has to be dealt with the police –a sentiment which most Indonesians could also feel at the moment.

In fact, I can still genuinely remember when I had to give money to bribe a police officer to pass the driving license test. During my previous attempts, I insisted to take the test without giving any bribe which led me to fail the test with no reason explained by the police officer in charge.

Or when I accompanied my friend, who had his car stolen, and we had to visit the police office four times just to have an available police officer who can handle the paperwork for the car’s insurance.

“Please come again next time, I’m busy here,” said one of the police officers during our third visit. “The other [two police officers in this department] should handle you, but my partner has not returned yet from his holiday and the other one is sleeping and cannot be disturbed,” he said while pointing to the other police officer who innocently slept next to him during his office hours.

And regarding the recent fallout of the bulky bank accounts of several police generals, in reality few were shocked when such case was divulged. If we look around in the neighborhood; the presence of police generals with 9 million rupiah salary (that includes, according to Tempo magazine, their various grants and allowances) yet still manage to possess luxurious houses and vehicles has not been a thing worth a news–it is a well-known scandal among Indonesians.

The National Police, however, was enraged and almost sued Tempo as they think the magazine, in the police’s ridiculous perspective, compared the members of the institution with bunch of pigs in its cover. Soon as the case made public, Molotov cocktails were hurled to Tempo office and, not so long afterwards, an Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) activist was beaten and hurried to hospital.

By reacting in such manner, they even proved that the allegation was true; if the facts revealed were false and those police generals were clean or earn the money legally, then why bothered and wasted so much energy responding to the publication in such childish and frantic fashion?

And those rich generals of the National Police, who have been flustered because of the exposure of this hefty bank account case, are the only ones who have the motive to do such violent acts.

Of course, the police generals will not admit to be ones who are responsible for those violent acts, and the National Police will argue that this is just another political plan or slander plot to taint their image in public. But think the logic of their argument: what’s the use of tainting the image of an institution whose reputation among the public has already been at its worst?

After all these disgraces, if those rich police generals still reject the public’s accusations and refuse external interventions in probing their institution; perhaps the best thing that they can do is to trace the source of the money from which their family buy their daily food, and reflect themselves in a mirror.

There are only three ways a person can become exceptionally rich but not from his own salary. First is by becoming entrepreneur who builds his own business, second is by becoming investor who plays and speculates in financial instruments like stocks and bonds, and third is, well, by becoming corruptor who receives illegal bribes and embezzles money.

If those top-brass police officers are neither a successful entrepreneur nor a witty investor, then perhaps the third category fits them best.

Whether they like it or not, so far it seems to be the best explanation to the baffled Indonesians who are currently wondering how they can transform their 9-million-rupiah monthly salary into multi-billion-rupiah bank account.

This article was published in The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, July 21 2010

Building Integrity of Indonesia's Future Generations

When my father was defiant to throw me to study at Kanisius Senior High School, at first I just could not comprehend his seemingly confounding decision. Despite realizing the fact that I will study in a Catholic school while actually he had struggled so hard to build an obedient Muslim environment in my family, or knowing that both he and my mother must take turns to wake up very early in the morning to drive me to school (it was located about 20 kilometers from my house); he stood firm on his decision. “The school will shape your mindset,” he argued.

During my three-year high school times there, in fact it did not take as long as three years for his argument to be proved dead right. Inside I discovered that the school was very strict in various matters, particularly in terms of its commitment to produce Indonesia’s younger generations with honest character, which can be considered somewhat hard to find these days.

And it was somewhat surprising how the school takes this simple matter very seriously. I was astounded the moment I found out that the all-boys school has one major rule for its students: that every student who is caught up in the act of cheating, beyond any reasonable doubt, will be shown the door out from the school.

The rule was not mere words. It was three weeks before the national exam, and the school was not so lenient when two of my friends –who both were third-year students at that time–, were caught red-handed when cheating during the class. As the consequence, they had to undergo the agony of dropping out from school as because of their wrongdoing.

After I graduated from high school and enter a whole new environment in university, I realized that unfortunately not everyone in Indonesia is on the same frame of mind. When I was still in my early sophomore year in the university, one of my peers was very surprised on how I could score so high on the national exam without cheating.

“I wonder how you guys achieved an almost-perfect score on national exam like that without bocoran soal (test’s answers). I simply wouldn’t even have passed the national exam if I were you,” he said.

“Back then, I and most of my friends in my high school chip in together to pay millions to insider in the education ministry, thus we can get the bocoran soal and very much relied on that to pass the national exam.”

That’s not the only one. While many were surprised by plagiarism cases that have been dominating newspapers’ headlines in recent weeks, yet for me the news was far from shocking. In actual fact, even here in one of the best universities in Indonesia, students who just do a copy-paste job from the internet for their tasks and conduct such act of plagiarism can still be found.

We can see that dishonesty practices, as they have always been, can be considered custom entrenched in Indonesia. Eventually as more and more people get accustomed to it, such ignominy turns out to be something rational thing to do: since everyone does thing the same way, it’s the people who don’t do it who will be considered wrong among their society.

As I grow up and can see Indonesia in a bigger picture, only now I can understand why my high school decided to pay intense attention to the word of “honesty” on its foundation of learning. For too long various dishonesty conducts, such as corruption, have been the root of evil that hampers Indonesia from reaching its full potential. While Indonesia inherits the land of rich natural resources which makes foreigners to see us with full envy, very frequent many of the resources are utilized to fulfill someone’s greed rather than the interest of this nation as a whole. Corruption practice like that, unfortunately, flourishes very well here in Indonesia.

Every student must be taught that deceitful things like cheating and plagiarism are the most disgraceful thing to be put into practice as it can become the origin of future corruption acts. Such mentality, therefore, should be planted in the mind of all Indonesia’s younger generations from the very beginning of their development.

The future of one nation lies in the hands of its younger generations, and we ought to invest in our younger generations if we want to fulfill our dream of seeing this nation to stride forward. Without doubt, in the future Indonesia needs leaders and government officials who are equipped by not only intellectual aptitude, but also integrity. And yes we really need to start thinking about implementing strict policies when it comes to the subject of reforming the mindset and mentality of our younger generations.

The tangible solution is clear: someone needs to do something to fix Indonesia deep from the root of the problem itself. Perhaps that was the thing which crossed into the mind of my high school’s executives when they established such stern rule; or what exactly my father thought by the time he insisted on putting me to study there.

This article was published in The Jakarta Post on Saturday, March 6 2010

Deception Point.

POKER FACE. Once devoted himself to serve the people and the nation, now National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri turns out to be the nation's public enemy as Indonesians find out about his evil plot to slander the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) executives.

I just can’t stop reading newspapers’ headlines recently. I have read spellbinding stories whose storylines contain one of the most complicated conspiracies in the world’s history such as Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, Adolf Hitler’s operation Valkryie, or Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme, but watching television and reading newspaper these weeks makes me wonder about changing my notion of considering those stories as mind-gripping.

In other words, for me those storylines are nothing but boring compared to the high-tense thriller that I am following right now.

If you are reading this at the moment and actually you don’t really understand what is going on in this fierce slugfest between Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Indonesian Police, I highly suggest you to read yesterday’s newspaper archives or watch television more frequently to comprehend the chronicle.

In fact, this saga is very interesting –so interesting that I think someone should write book or make movie about this whole thing. As the story grows more and more astonishing each day, this may be the world’s most enthralling drama in decades and therefore it should not be missed.

Like Hollywood movies, the rift between the police and KPK put its spectators on the edge of their seats as the saga goes beyond its initial means. New characters whose role was proved to be significant on the story’s plot are introduced every week. Initially the battle only involved high-rank police officers against their enemies, the anti-graft commission deputies, but as now the case has broadened it unexpectedly drags many popular names like Adnan Buyung Nasution, Abdul Hakim Ritonga and M.S Kaban into the fuss –even our president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was said to have his hands involved in this highly controversial case.

But you don’t have to be a smart person to realize that there’s definitely something wrong with this case –even an undergraduate student like me can comprehend the reason why huge public resentment towards the Police and the government exists at the moment.

We saw on the live television broadcast already how National Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri and National Police chief of detectives Susno Duadji performed during the hearing in front of the House of Representatives. Those bandits seem to cover themselves with the hero mask: the way they convincingly persuaded the House of Representatives and tried to regain the trust of million Indonesians who watched their live performance, the way they played the role as if they were on the same side as the KPK’s in enforcing the law and corruption eradication in Indonesia –it was simply a sort of performance you would expect from Oscar-winning actors.

Thanks for all the seemingly perfect acting dear police officers, but only donkey falls to the same hole two times. Indonesian people are no donkeys; now with Ari Muladi and Williardi Wizard have unfolded your evil thoughts to frame the KPK leaders and shown to us how dilapidated your organization actually is, we just cannot have faith in you anymore.

We can also recall that the KPK tape have clearly unfurled Anggodo’s crucial role on the plot to undermine the once larger-than-life commission. Surprisingly, at the moment he still wanders freely as he was released by the police with their vague argument of ‘not sufficient evidence’.

The villain is well ahead of the good guy by now since the justice is only yet to be erected –and the villain will still be in this vantage point if culprits like Anggodo, Susno Duadji, and Bambang Hendarso Danuri are still free out there and far from being locked-up in the place where they truly deserve to be in.

Indonesians were presented with numerous shrewd trickeries already in this saga. But the story is far from over as many vital characters like Yulianto and Yuliana Oeng are still hiding behind the curtain and waiting to be introduced to the stage. At some point, the show will be crammed with its entire performers and the storyline becomes more puzzling than ever. Just then it will be very interesting while we can only wonder what kind of ending this story will offer.

Who will win? Beware crocodiles; you are not playing the good guy role here. And storylines in Hollywood movies are famous for the concept of: at the end of the story, it’s the good guy who always prevails.