Page 148 - SCANDAL AND DEMOCRACY

Scandal and Democratic Consolidation 133

suspect Akbar Tanjung became increasingly transparent when [the] Attorney Gen-
eral’s Offi ce investigators suddenly declared the Golkar chairman’s dossier complete,”
taking only a few hours to study the fi les before handing them over to the court, a step
that usually “takes at least two weeks.”
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On March 25, Tanjung’s trial began. The court charged him with “directly or indi-
rectly causing financial or economic loss to the state.” Although a close relationship
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between the chief justice and another Golkar party boss reduced the trial’s credibility,
Tanjung’s indictment was still unprecedented. No official at his level had ever faced
such proceedings.
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But that same week, a group of Golkar legislators went back on the offensive,
fighting scandal with scandal. Shifting attention from Tanjung’s trial, they began
lobbying to summon President Megawati to explain an extrabudgetary Rp30 billion
donation made on February 25 to a military housing project, a scandal later called
“Banpresgate.” Under such pressure to compromise with Golkar, on April 2 PDIP
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appeared to have resolved its internal debate over Buloggate II. In public statements
clearing Golkar of connections to the diverted money, party leaders who had once
been among the loudest in demanding a DPR probe now announced that the money
had gone to “individuals” and “private institutions”—in other words, not to any polit-
ical parties.
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Amid media charge and countercharge, Tanjung’s trial was under way. The
prosecution had a strong case, armed with fifteen cashed checks amounting to
Rp40 billion and solid leads to trace the money to Golkar accounts. But the pub-
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lic prosecutor, Fachmi [one name], seemed more intent on clearing Tanjung than
indicting him; Fachmi directed most charges at Tanjung’s hapless codefendants—
Simatupang (who had returned the stolen money) and Dadang Sukandar (Raudatul
Jannah’s alleged founder). Both appeared willing to take the fall for the party’s
chair. At this critical juncture, however, the media, led by Tempo, openly challenged
Fachmi to stop stalling. In its detailed coverage, Tempo revisited evidence already
gathered, including documentation that Golkar treasurers had cashed two Bulog
checks for Rp10 billion apiece. But the attorney general’s office dismissed this
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documentation because the magazine only had photocopies of the endorsed checks,
not the originals.
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On April 6, the attorney general’s office suddenly released Tanjung on the personal
guarantee of his wife, who wanted him home to celebrate her birthday. Despite
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strong evidence to support their case, prosecutors had already given Tanjung sev-
eral gifts—notably, incompetence in the form of “vague” charges, and “careless” and
“confusing” dossiers providing the defendant cause to demand dismissal. Tanjung’s
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prosecutors, moreover, aimed their case mainly at the Raudatul Jannah foundation,
setting the stage for his codefendants to take the fall and thus clearing Tanjung and
Golkar of any wrongdoing. On the trial’s first day, it seemed Tanjung’s prosecution
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was heading for the same denouement as defendants in the Bank Bali scandal—
exoneration on grounds of prosecutorial incompetence.
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A week later, however, Tanjung and his party were blindsided from another direc-
tion when the separate trial of former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan took an unex-
pected turn. On April 23, Ramelan’s defense counsel, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, uncovered
details of a plot to conceal Tanjung’s involvement in the diversion of Bulog funds.
While questioning Tanjung as a witness in Ramelan’s trial, Soerjadi revealed that
at a meeting back in October 2001, Tanjung and his lawyer, Hotma Sitompul, “had
attempted to persuade Ramelan to lie to investigators.” Significantly, the justice in
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