8/2/2019 Corruption Everywhere

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Corruption everywhere

IN INDONESIA, the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation, many politicians hold open

houses on the first morning of the post-Ramadan Idul Fitriholiday to greet supporters

and well wishers, before spending the afternoon with their own families. Last week,

lawmaker Muhammad Nazaruddin proved to be an exception, spending August 31st in

police detention facility just outside the capital Jakarta on corruption charges while his

wife, also a suspect, remained on the run abroad with the couples children. Mr

Nazaruddin, who is now the most celebrated detainee in a country bursting with high-

profile corruption suspects, marked his 33rd birthday in jail on August 26th.

Only four months ago, the wealthy, handsome businessman-cum-politician was a high-flying member of

parliament. It all came crashing down in early May after Mr Nazaruddin was implicated in a scandal involving

the construction ofathletes dormitories for the upcoming Southeast Asia Games, which Indonesia is hosting.

National and provincial government officials, an executive from a company run by Mr Nazaruddin that won the

construction tender, as well as a fellow lawmaker from the Democratic Party, have also been arrested or

implicated. On May 23rd, a humbled Mr Nazaruddin boarded a flight to Singapore and went on the run before

Indonesias Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) could request a travel ban. He was finally arrested in the

Columbian resort town of Cartagena on August 8th and flown home.

Mr Nazaruddins spectacular fall from grace has spotlighted the fact that, despite being 13 years removed from

the fall of Indonesian dictator Suhartos corrupt regime in 1998, opportunistic government officials, lawmakers

and businessmen continue to collude on the awarding of state contracts, budget funds, big business deals, and

even tax breaks in exchange for a piece of the action. This is an embarrassment for the worlds third-largest

democracy and a leading emerging economy.

While Mr Nazaruddins arrest is another black eye for parliament, the scandal has also spread far and wide. Mr

Nazaruddin was treasurer of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonos ruling Democratic Party, and before he

was finally detained by Columbian immigration, he claimed from abroad that other senior Democratic Party

figures were aware of the graft involving the dormitory project and had themselves profited by it. The

Democrats have flatly denied his claims.

Mr Yudhoyono handily won presidential elections in 2004 and 2009 on a platform of zero tolerance for

corruption, but Mr Nazaruddin has clearly hurt the Democratic Partys image and poll ratings. While he cant

seek another term in office, the president will remain its chief patron after he steps down in 2014. Whether Mr

Yudhoyonos successor is another Democratic Party leader remains to be seen, given that Mr Nazaruddin

implicated two potential presidential candidates in the scandal. Then theres the future of the party itself, which

was founded by Mr Yudhoyono ahead of the 2004 elections. Without his star power on the stump as a candidate,

some believe the Democrats will crumble in parliamentary and presidential polls in 2014.For the most part, the Democratic Partys political rivals stood back and watched it squirm. But after Mr

Nazaruddin was brought home and placed in detention, a group of lawmakers from rival and opposition parties

curiously visited him in jail, after which Mr Nazaruddin claimed he had forgotteneverything about the

dormitory scandal.

It is just possible that Mr Nazaruddin will strike a deal with the KPK and tell all about the massive web of

corruption that remains a fixture in parliament. In recent months, for example, 28 current and former lawmakers

were sentenced to prison for accepting bribes to vote for a candidate for deputy central bank governor in 2003,

before the Democratic Party was even in parliament. If Mr Yudhoyonos rivals want to play hardball with him

over the Nazaruddin scandal, they should pause to consider that they have far more skeletons in their own

closets.