Top house members fume over ICW graft list

JAKARTA. A number of prominent members of the House of Representatives have threatened to file a defamation report against Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) for producing a list that deems them graft-friendly politicians.

Over the weekend, ICW, in collaboration with the People’s Voter Education Network (JPPR), released a survey in which they found that 36 politicians out of the 6,482 people listed in the General Elections Commission (KPU) provisional legislative candidates list (DCS) were considered to lack the commitment to fight graft.

Among those in the list are House Speaker Marzuki Alie of the Democratic Party, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s son Edhie “Ibas” Baskoro Yudhoyono also of the Democrats, fellow Democrat lawmaker Sutan Bhatoegana, outspoken lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party, House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso also of Golkar, I Wayan Koster of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Fahri Hamzah of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and Desmond Mahesa of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party.

Golkar had the most members on the list with 10 of its politicians appearing. The Democrats had nine members on the list while the PDI-P had five and the PKS four.

A number of lawmakers responded angrily to the report.

“I will file a police report against ICW soon. The organization no longer has credibility because it accuses people without evidence,” senior lawmaker Sutan Bhatoegana of the ruling Democrats said on Sunday.

ICW researcher Donal Fariz said the list indicated the failure of political parties to come up with quality candidates.

“Of the 36 people, 34 are incumbent lawmakers. To make matters worse, most of the 34 people have been placed by their political parties as number one candidates on their lists,” Donal said.

The study used five main criteria to assess the candidates’ anticorruption commitment: Their alleged roles in corruption cases as provided by court witnesses, the sanctions imposed on them by the House ethics council, their graft convictions, their media statements openly undermining anticorruption campaigns and their open support for reducing the power of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) by planning to amend the Antigraft Law.

Ibas, for example, is included on the list for reporting whistle blower Yulianis to the National Police for defamation after the witness testified in court that Yudhoyono’s son received illicit funds from former Democratic lawmaker and graft convict Muhammad Nazaruddin.

Sutan’s name was repeatedly mentioned during many graft trials. Marzuki appears on the list for his repeated calls for the disbanding of the KPK.

The PKS’ Fahri accused ICW of mounting a smear campaign against his party “to raise money from foreign donors.”

“ICW has been calling all of their opponents corrupt,” he added.

Golkar’s Bambang, who had been a central figure in efforts to uncover the Bank Century bailout scandal, accused ICW of making baseless accusations.

Bambang has repeatedly denied accepting bribes from former National Traffic Police Corps (Korlantas) chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo, who is now a graft defendant.

ICW placed Bambang on the list on the basis of that accusation and said it was ready to deal with the fall out from its latest report.

“Go ahead, it’s their right to do that. For the record, ICW made the list after doing comprehensive research. We had a strong basis before releasing the list,” he said.

“We did the research as part of our responsibility as members of civil society to scrutinize legislative candidates so that people will have sufficient information before voting in the 2014 elections,” Donal said.

He said ICW had turned over the report to the KPU. (Bagus T Saragih)