TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Leaders of the House of Representatives (DPR) are getting shameless and do no side with the fight against corruption.
Instead of supporting efforts of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) disclose the e-KTP project mega scandal, they instead protested against steps taken by the Immigration Directorate to ban DPR Speaker Setya Novanto to go abroad.
KPK needs Setya to stay in the country because he is the key witness in this corruption case, which is worth Rp 2.3 trillion.
His name has often been mentioned by other witnesses as somebody who regulated the graft in the 5.9 trillion project at the Home Affairs Ministry.
Setya is reportedly somebody who devised the project long before the government proposed it to the DPR.
At that time, in mid 2010, Setya was the chairman of the Golkar Party Fraction.
According to the testimonies of the DPR members, he regulated budget and divided the project money through Andi Agustinus a.k.a Andi Narogong, a broker who has been named as suspect in this case.
In many projects indicated to be marred with graft, both names were often reportedly working together.
With the investigation that is now getting more intense, it is understandable if KPK banned Setya from going abroad.
He is needed to confirm the statements of his colleagues so this mega scandal was clearly disclosed agar and the public knows who enjoy the project money.
If the DPR responds it by proposing a note of protest to President Joko Widodo, it would be difficult not to say that they are in collusion to protect their colleagues. The reason that the ban hinders the performance of the DPR does not make sense at all.
During the ban period, Setya is still the Speaker of the DPR and carries out his task as usual.
If he’s guilty, why should he is disturbed? This sentence has to be born in mind by Setya and DPR leaders.
If he is not involved in the e-KPT graft, Setya or DPR leaders must not react like that because instead it shows that he is involved in this case.
In fact, what he has to show is to support the KPK to investigate the case as transparently as possible.
The plan to send a note of protest to the President for the ban is a bad political maneuver and hurts the reputation of the DPR as the place where people’s representatives gather.
Those DPR leaders do not have to respond to the Golkar’s maneuver who sent the objection protest for the ban.
Forwarding it as a note of protest on behalf of the DPR leaders to the President will diminish public trust.
The public is already bored with political maneuvers of the DPR that are often not in line with the expectations, especially in terms of corruption eradication.
Public trust will further drop if those maneuvers like note of protest for the ban for Setya Novanto to go abroad is supported by the majority of DPR members.
Politicians who are still sane have to protest against the decisions made by the DPR leaders.
We need a strong DPR as a control of the government. If members of the DPR in the last period were involved in the e-KTP graft case, members of the DPR of the current period need to clean the reputation of the DPR, so that the public trust that the DPR is part of the efforts that make Indonesia better through the fight against corruption.
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