September 10, 2024
JAKARTA – Think before you post: This piece of advice has been repeated by the Communications and Information Ministry to urge people to be careful when posting on social media because of the legal and social repercussions.
Yet, it seems that Erina Gudono, the wife of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s youngest son Kaesang Pangarep, did not follow the suggestion when posting a picture of her flying in a private jet to the United States.
Now, her post has put Kaesang, and surely the whole first family, in hot water, as public pressure mounts on the law enforcer to investigate alleged graft behind Erina and her husband’s lavish trip, which contradicts President Jokowi’s repeated calls for the nation to live in simplicity.
The public has accused her and Kaesang of flying in a private jet provided by a businessman; an act that may fall into the category of unlawful gratuities or trading in influence, given Kaesang’s as the President’s son. People have been pushing for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to investigate this allegation.
The antigraft body initially seemed hesitant to answer the people’s demand. But the commission made a move as its interim chair Nawawi Pomolango told the media that the KPK would summon Kaesang to clarify the private jet trip, although the query would not be a criminal investigation.
But the KPK’s team in charge of monitoring gifts received by public officials, which Nawawi said had been preparing to summon Kaesang, backtracked its plan, citing that another division was currently examining reports of alleged illegal gratuities against Kaesang, filed by an antigraft activist and a lecturer.
Such an outcome may be disappointing for most people, but not surprising. The revision of the KPK Law passed in 2019 has defanged the agency, which was once the most feared institution for ensnaring sitting public officials in the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
It is now for us to see the KPK launching an investigation into powerful officials, although people in and around the antigraft body will maintain that the institution is as bold and independent as it used to be.
Kaesang’s private jet brouhaha has highlighted the KPK’s weak efforts in the country, especially on the legal side.
When speaking to reporters about the plan to summon Kaesang, KPK interim chair Nawawi also said that the antigraft body had the authority to investigate the first son, even though he is not a state official. Nawawi, a former corruption judge, said that the KPK still had other “legal instruments”, such as trading in influence.
Trading in influence is acknowledged by the United Nations’ graft convention, which Indonesia has ratified. But the illicit practice has yet to be included in the 2003 Anticorruption Law, becoming a loophole to avoid legal prosecution.
Antigraft activists have been pushing policymakers to revise the law to include trading of influence and other provisions from the UN convention in our national law. But the call has fallen on deaf ears.
In the past, the KPK actually acted against trading in influence when it prosecuted individuals who were not public officials but could influence a decision-making process because of their familial, collegial or organizational connection with the decision-makers. Those people were eventually found guilty of receiving money for misusing their influence.
Trading in influence is different from bribery, which usually involves money to directly influence a decision-making process.
Criminalizing trading in influence should be a top priority of the incoming administration of president-elect Prabowo Subianto, who has vowed to go after corrupt individuals. Strengthening the Anticorruption Law and law enforcers, rather than undermining them, is imperative if Prabowo aims to have a clean government and good governance.
For now, people may also want to push for the lawmakers to seriously and appropriately revise the law, while waiting for the KPK to prove its mettle in dealing with the circumstances of Kaesang’s private jet saga.