It happened just as we predicted months ago. Since the police declared the chairman and a deputy of the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, as suspects and followed with a favorable ruling by the court for graft suspect police general Budi Gunawan, the antigraft body has been paralyzed while the nation’s spirit and energy to fight corruption is getting weaker every day.

Police are close to concluding their investigation into Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto while the ruling by Judge Sarpin Rizaldi continues to have a destructive impact on Indonesia’s fight against corruption. 

Anti-corruption activists and the public are gradually losing hope in the KPK as they regard the current leaders of the antigraft body — handpicked by President Joko Widodo — as only there to fill the void and being unable to make any major moves. 

Meanwhile, graft suspect after graft suspect take turns to file pretrial lawsuits against KPK’s investigations against them, taking advantage of Sarpin’s ruling and hoping to defeat the antigraft body in court.

Former religious affairs minister Suryadharma is the first graft suspect to take advantage of the so-called “Sarpin Effect.” If he can convince the judge to overturn his suspect status and have the KPK’s investigation stopped, then we can almost hear the death bell of the antigraft war. It will be the end of the KPK and victory for the corruptors.

We can almost be certain that next graft suspect could achieve the same victory.

We are in a corruption emergency situation. In this time of emergency, anti-corruption activists, the media and the public in general must have a sense of crisis. The first thing to do is to overthrow Sarpin’s ruling. All law experts, media and antigraft watchdogs must unite in dismissing the ruling as a joke and even a violation of the law. 

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Jakarta. The Jakarta government will suspend two education officials named as suspects by police for their involvement in the irregular procurement of uninterruptible power supply devices to schools across the capital last year. 

The National Police on Monday charged Alex Usman and Zaenal Soleman, the procurement’s project managers for West Jakarta and Central Jakarta, respectively, on suspicion of corruption and bid rigging.

Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said with the two now embroiled in a criminal case, by law the city can suspend them from active duty.

“As they have been named suspects, it is better if they concentrate on their cases. We will replace them,” Basuki said, adding that he would soon look for potential candidates to replace the suspects. 

Alex and Zaenal are currently the West Jakarta education agency’s facility chief and the city’s youth and sports agency chief, respectively.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat said on Tuesday that the suspension would have to wait for more development into the case. 

“Once the [legal] process continues, we will evaluate whether they need to be replaced immediately or not,” Djarot said.

Meanwhile the governor appeared reluctant to have the city provide the two accused with legal counsel.

“I don’t know if we can provide [counsel] for a corruption case,” the governor said on Tuesday. 

Last year, the city spent Rp 330 billion ($25 million) on the UPS equipment for 55 schools in the capital, in a program that Governor Basuki says his administration never proposed.

The schools say they neither needed nor requested the devices, which at a price tag of Rp 6 billion each are highly inflated compared with retail listings of no more than Rp 20 million per device.

The companies listed as tender winners for the procurement were also deemed suspicious. Addresses listed were found to be empty warehouses and small shops.

The UPS machines were distributed to schools across West and Central Jakarta between last October and January this year.

Police say they have found indications of state losses amounting to at least Rp 50 billion, which was reportedly pocketed by several city officials.

National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said investigators are looking to charge more suspects.

“From the flow of funds, it is likely that there will be more suspects. We will question [Alex and Zainal] next week,” he said.Jakarta Education Officials in Hot Water for Shady Purchase of UPS Devices

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Jakarta. The government will send more officials to help evacuate the more than 4,000 Indonesians residing in Yemen as Saudi-led forces continue to launch attacks against Shiite rebels in the gulf state.

According to Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the evacuation of 4,159 Indonesians trapped in Yemen has been slow because Indonesia’s embassy in the capital city Sanaa is only staffed by three people at the moment. 

“Our embassy [in Yemen] is very small. There are only three diplomats. So we are sending more people from Jakarta to assist these three so all 4,000 Indonesians there can be evacuated,” Kalla said on Tuesday.

The vice president said the government was concerned about the ongoing offensive launched by the Saudi-led forces. 

Although claiming that the majority of Indonesians living in Yemen are outside the conflict areas, violence could spread as the Houthi rebels are pushed back. 

Kalla said the government was looking to evacuate Indonesians via neighboring countries Oman and Saudi Arabia by land or sea. 

Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said the ministry was also looking to evacuate citizens by air, but this process would require clearance from the Saudi-led forces. 

“We will evacuate our citizens out of Yemen as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible. We will focus on evacuating them to the nearest safe territory such as Salalah, Oman, or Jizan, Saudi Arabia,” he said. 

The Indonesian Air Force has readied a Boeing 737 jet to expedite the evacuation process, but as Yemen’s airspace is crowded by the Saudi-led forces’ warplanes and ground-to-air missiles, the plan is risky. 

“We have communicated [with the Arab League] that there are plans by the [Indonesian] Air Force to evacuate our citizens. We don’t want [the evacuation team] to fall victim to a shoot-out,” he said.

The government has evacuated at least 360 people since the conflict escalated last week. The latest to be evacuated was a group of 190 people who were transported by land from Sanaa to Al Hudaydah near the country’s border with Saudi on Tuesday. 

The ministry said there were already 30 Indonesians who have been evacuated to the border town. 

“Our first priority is to get Indonesians out of the conflict zone. From there we will get them out of Yemen. Then, we will find ways for them to return to Indonesia,” he said. 

The government has brought home 141 Indonesians using commercial flights since February, when Yemen’s security situation began to rapidly deteriorate.

The National Police is also sending seven officers to assist the evacuation process. The officers, five male and two females, are scheduled to be deployedon Wednesday, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto said. 

“They will be on duty for about two weeks but it all depends on the situation,” he said. 

Arrmanatha said the officers will manage all the security details of the evacuation as well as several safe houses in Yemen. 

Indonesians in the country were told to convene at these houses, after which officers will find the best means to transport them out of the country. 

“The evacuation team will travel back and forth to pick up Indonesians and get them out of Yemen,” he said. 

The safe houses are mainly in Sanaa, where most Indonesians are residing, between three to four hours’ drive from the border with Saudi Arabia.

The Foreign Ministry’s director of consular and legal affairs, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said officials were confident that they would be able to evacuate all Indonesian citizens safely. 

“The relationships between Indonesia and all factions in Yemen are good, so we have safe passage [for the evacuation],” he said.  

The Indonesian government has also successfully lobbied for the release 24 Indonesians detained by Yemeni officials over immigration issues, Iqbal said.

“They have all been released now,” he said on Tuesday. 

The 24 were earlier arrested for overstaying or violating the terms of visas. 

Iqbal said the 24 were students who, since the security conditions worsened, have been struggling to get their visas extended. 

The students were then forced to live from one mosque to the next to avoid being arrested by immigration officials.

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Elvyn G Masassya, president director of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.
(GA Photo/Muhamad Al Azhari)

Jakarta. From July 1, the Social Security Administration Body for Employment, or BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, will monitor companies operating in Indonesia to ensure registration of employees into the compulsory social security scheme, the agency’s chief said on Tuesday.

“In the past, when we were still called Jamsostek, we didn’t have the authority to enforce the law,” said Elvyn G Masassya, president director of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.

“Starting on July 1, we will have the authority to make visits and scrutinize naughty companies, and proceed with legal action. Some penalties for the non-compliance companies could be they have their licences revoked or even an eight year jail term and Rp 1 billion [$76,000] fine,” said the executive who has lead the former state enterprise since 2012.

The government has made it mandatory for companies to register employees, including expatriates, with the Employee Social Security program, regardless of programs and policies in place in their home countries.

“We will cooperate with the provincial government, or district municipalities. They are able to revoke business licences if necessary. We can also make recommendations to other government agencies to revoke legal papers of the offenders. For example, we can recommend for their passports or driving licences to be revoked,” Elvyn said.

He added that the government body has established a supervising unit.

“We already have 127 supervisors, who will go in to the field starting July 1. They have been trained and certified,” he said.

BPJS Ketenagakerjaan was previously known as Jamsostek, or the state-pension fund.

After Jan. 1, 2014, the agency merged with two state pension funds — Asabri, servicing police, military and defense and Taspen, a civil servant fund.

The surviving entity was renamed BPJS Ketenagakerjaan and it covers three of the four previous services: occupational accidents, saving for old age and death insurance.

The health insurance service has been adopted by BPJS Kesehatan, formerly Askes Indonesia.

From July 1, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan will acquire full legal status as a non-ministry government agency, and will be supervised directly by the president.

The agency will begin providing occupational accident and death insurance service to civil servants, the police and the military.

Investment

The body is the largest institutional investor in Indonesia. During the interview, Elvyn also shared the social security body’s ambitious target to book up to Rp 500 trillion worth of assets under management by 2019, well up from last year’s Rp 187 trillion.

BPJS Ketenagakerjaan last year registered 16.7 million members and from the Rp 187 trillion funds it managed, it disbursed Rp 18.6 trillion in investment yields.

Employees, along with the employers, pay in to the social security scheme provided by BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, but the funds are managed by the fund before being disbursed to the claimant when needed.

BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, like other insurers and pension funds, invest funds collected from members in a number of diverse portfolios.

Elvyn says BPJS Ketenagakerjaan has a specific formula for investment strategy.

“About 18 percent to 22 percent we typically place in stocks; 42 percent to 46 percent in high-grade bonds; 28 percent to 32 percent in term deposits; about 5 percent to 10 percent mutual funds and the remainder in property and private placement [in a specific company or project],” Elvyn said.

“But as to whether we will go for the upper or bottom ceiling for each of them, it depends on the macro-economic conditions and market situations,” said Elvyn, who is the former corporate secretary of Bank Negara Indonesia and director at Bank Permata.

This year, Elvyn said assets under management are targeted to rise to Rp 220 billion and registered members to soar to 22 million. BPJS Ketenagakerjaan will also deploy a unique strategy to boost investment in property.

Elvyn said the government body plans to invest about Rp 20.4 trillion for development of affordable housing; rental apartments (Rusunawa) and lower cost apartments (Rusunami).

He said BPJS Ketenagakerjaan plans to build a combined six Rusunawa and Rusunami, which will be spread across North Sumatra, the Greater Jakarta Area, throughout Java and South Sulawesi.

“Being a member of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan doesn’t only give financial benefits and protection, but members can also get access to some basic welfare needs — like housing, transportation and food.”

“This is the total benefit concept we have introduced to members,” said Elvyn.

BPJS Ketenagakerjaan is supported by nearly 4,000 staffers, 121 full branches and more than 1,100 outlets.

Elvyn has set an ambitious target to open a further 150 branches and about 10,000 new outlets.

“Outlets doesn’t mean [BPJS Ketenagakerjaan] owns it, we could make arrangements with anyone who has the premises to cater to our services. For example, retailers or even banks. So it’s zero investment,” Elvyn said.

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Jakarta. The South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday heard a pretrial motion filed by former religious minister Suryadharma Ali against the national anti-graft agency — the second such move by a corruption suspect in an effort to dispute his suspect status.

The first hearing of Suryadharma’s pretrial case took place one and a half months after the same court, in an unprecedented ruling, approved a similar motion by National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named him a bribery suspect in January.

Experts have slammed the sole judge in Budi’s trial, Sarpin Rizaldi, for the controversial verdict, predicting that it would inspire other graft suspects to take similar action.

Suryadharma has been the first to prove concerns about the “Sarpin Effect” were well-founded, having filed his pretrial motion against the KPK with the South Jakarta District Court last month.

He is disputing the anti-graft agency’s naming of him as a suspect last year over the graft-ridden management of Indonesia’s Hajj pilgrimage funds by the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Suryadharma’s lawyers have argued that the KPK breached the law in its move against the former minister and that there was another motive behind the case.

The lawyers have also said the anti-graft body was not authorized to investigate suspected corruption in Indonesia’s Hajj fund management.

The former chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), who was forced to step down from the party leadership and his ministerial post because of the graft allegations, has also demanded that the KPK pays him Rp 1 trillion ($76 million) in compensation for “social losses” he has suffered because of the graft charges.

His lawyers quoted Sarpin’s February verdict in Budi’s case to support Suryadharma’s similar move against the KPK.

The KPK’s attorney, Chatarina Girsang, said Suryadharma’s motion was unfounded.

“Arguments used by the plaintiff to support his pretrial motion are incorrect and flawed,” Chatarina said.

She added that Sarpin’s verdict could not be used to support the motion, because judges at several other courts, including those in Bengkulu, the Central Java town of Purwokerto and the West Java district of Sumedang, have thrown out similar motions filed against them on the basis that they are not under those district courts’ jurisdiction.

“It is not right to qualify [pretrial motions against suspect statuses] as within the jurisdiction [of district courts],” said Nur Chusniah, another KPK lawyer.

Suryadharma’s first pretrial hearing was originally scheduled for Monday, but it was adjourned as the KPK’s legal team failed to show their assignment letter to represent the KPK in the trial.

Judge Tati Hardiyanti, the sole judge in Suryadharma’s pretrial motion, said the second hearing would be held on Wednesday, during which Suryadharma’s lawyers are expected to explain their arguments.

The verdict on the case will be issued next week, Tati said.

Aside from Suryadharma, a number of other graft suspects also have filed pretrial motions against the KPK — all with the South Jakarta District Court. 

They include former Supreme Audit Agency chief and tax director general Hadi Purnomo; a former processing director at state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, Suroso Atmo Martoyo; and former Democratic Party lawmaker Sutan Bhatoegana.

The first hearings of Hadi and Suroso were also originally scheduled for Monday, but were adjourned as the KPK’s legal representatives failed to attend.

Sutan’s pretrial motion, meanwhile, has been rejected because KPK prosecutors have submitted results of investigations into his case to the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court, according to South Jakarta District Court spokesman Made Sutrisna.

“Based on … the penal code, a pretrial motion is annulled when the case itself has gone to the court,” Made said in his office on Tuesday.

KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha has denied allegations that the KPK deliberately failed to make court appearances for pretrial motions in order to slow down the processes, while speeding up its investigations into related graft cases.

That way, like the case with Sutan’s, the other pretrial motions may also be annulled when they head to court. 

“[Sutan’s] case proceeds to court because prosecutors has completed the investigations, has examined the investigation documents, so the case has entered the prosecution stage,” Priharsa said at the KPK’s headquarters in South Jakarta on Monday.

He denied that the KPK had sped up investigations to avoid pretrial motions.

Meanwhile, calls are mounting for the Supreme Court, the government and lawmakers to interfere in the pretrial motion debacle.

An expert team formed by Andalas University’s (Unand) Legal Aid and Consultation Foundation (LKBH), which has called Sarpin’s verdict “a blunder,” said the legal chaos would be widespread.

“Considering that [Sarpin’s] verdict will have wide effects on investigations of criminal cases in general, it is necessary for the Supreme Court to exercise its supervisory functions and ensure that every judge comply with the Criminal Code,” Unand lecturer and LKBH executive Khairul Fahmi said.

“On the other hand, the law may not regulate this, but the pretrial motion judge [Sarpin] has declared a suspect naming as an object of pretrial motions. 

“Therefore, we recommend that the government and the House immediately revise regulations concerning pretrial motions in the Criminal Code.”

Separately, criminal law expert Agustinus Pohan of Bandung’s Parahyangan University said the KPK would be exhausted with all the pretrial motions it was facing, and many more that are expected to come its way, if the issue is unresolved.

“This [problem] will undoubtedly escalate and threaten criminal law processes. It will disrupt the country’s judicial processes,” Agustinus told a public discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.

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