Page 146 - SCANDAL AND DEMOCRACY

Scandal and Democratic Consolidation 131

highlighted in Tempo ’s exposé. Tanjung denied the charge, stating, “There were no
such receipts.”
80
That same week, Tempo devoted its cover to a picture of Tanjung with a Pinoc-
chio nose and his mouth papered shut by a check. The Pinocchio cover prompted “an
angry visit by incensed Golkar officials to the magazine’s office.” Tempo responded
“that Golkar had not cared less when the magazine dished out equally harsh coverage
to ex-president Abdurrahman Wahid over the first so-called Buloggate scandal [that]
eventually led to his downfall.”
81
Again, on December 1, Tanjung’s friends in Golkar fought back, threatening, via
the media, to establish a “rival” parliamentary committee to investigate the misuse
of Bulog funds by other political parties. A Jakarta Post editorial accused Golkar of
82
“hold[ing] the entire nation hostage,” arguing that “the Buloggate II inquiry should be
started precisely because Golkar has resorted to blackmail [and] threats” to block it.
83
Tanjung’s—and Golkar’s—credibility hinged on the claim that the Rp40 billion
went to the Raudatul Jannah charity, and not, as Tempo ’s exposé indicated, to Gol-
kar’s election activities. But the Indonesian media openly challenged Tanjung’s story,
reporting that the charity had been formed only recently and was, moreover, headed
by Golkar executives. Under this pressure, even the attorney general’s office and
84
Antara began probing the story’s inconsistencies.
By early 2002, the tide appeared to have turned against Tanjung. On January 7, state
prosecutors named the Golkar chair an official suspect, charging him with impropri-
ety in authorizing as state secretary the disbursement of Rp40 billion from Bulog’s
nonbudgetary funds. Though Tanjung’s friends lobbied heavily to allow him “an
85
honorable retreat,” President Megawati herself rejected his request that the attorney
general’s investigation be dropped.
86
Tanjung’s image suffered further through ridicule in the press, with more wither-
ing caricatures and photo captions. Following the Pinocchio edition, Tempo ’s cover
87
showed Tanjung cowered in a corner biting his thumb. A few weeks later, he appeared
88
in a bright yellow matador costume waving a symbol of his fabricated “RJ” foundation
before an angry bull, the symbol of the ruling party, PDIP.
89
Now embattled on all fronts, Tanjung lashed out at the media. He had steered
clear of direct confrontation with Tempo , whose reports arguably had done him the
most damage. But when the small daily Rakyat Merdeka published a caricature of him
bare-chested and sweating as an official “suspect,” he filed a libel suit.
90
After Megawati refused Tanjung’s request to drop the attorney general’s investiga-
tion, Tanjung, according to Golkar insiders, had no choice but “to feed information” to
the media that “would implicate other leading politicians in a variety of scandals” and
thereby force a compromise. The threat apparently had some impact. Though the
91
attorney general’s office seemed to be pursuing its investigation, observers believed
that naming Tanjung a “suspect” was part of a cover-up to save him by avoiding a
parliamentary inquiry. By the end of January, legislators from PDIP reported that they
were being coerced into following the party’s position on the case.
92
Tanjung was exploiting two weak spots in PDIP’s armor. The party’s flurry of back-
pedaling, said the Asia Times , was “an about-face triggered by Akbar’s [dual] threat to
withdraw support for Megawati and make public alleged corruption by her husband.”
Moreover, it was widely believed by this time that all the major political parties, PDIP
included, had accepted money from Bulog before the 1999 elections. Since Golkar
93
had control over Bulog’s accounts during their diversion, this wide dispersal among
major parties seemed clever foresight that protected Golkar from future fallout for