Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto walking onstage on Nov 20, 2024, prior to the start of the nationalist party’s press briefing in Jakarta on the 2024 regional head elections. - Antara
JAKARTA: The bitter feud between former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has spilled over into the legal sphere, after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named the party’s secretary-general a suspect in a bribery case and banned another senior politician from leaving the country.
The KPK named on Monday (Dec 23) secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto a suspect for allegedly aiding former party member Harun Masiku in a bribery case and obstructing justice by helping him flee.
Harun is accused of bribing then General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner Wahyu Setiawan in 2019 for a seat in the House of Representatives following the death of a PDI-P lawmaker-elect.
Harun has been a fugitive since being named a suspect in 2020. The antigraft agency also imposed travel bans on Hasto and former law minister Yasonna Laoly, preventing them from leaving Indonesia for six months starting on Tuesday.
Hasto has been a staunch critic of Jokowi’s alleged interference in the February presidential election, accusing him of using state resources to support Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, who eventually won with his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son.
Yasonna is not a suspect in the case. He was questioned by KPK investigators earlier this month regarding Harun’s overseas travel records while he led the former law and human rights ministry, which had jurisdiction over immigration.
Yasonna was removed from his ministerial post in August of this year by Jokowi, who at the time was still president, reportedly because he had certified a PDI-P decision to extend the term of Megawati Soekarnoputri’s leadership to next year without informing Jokowi.
The KPK’s decision to name Hasto a suspect and ban him and Yasonna from traveling overseas came not long after President Prabowo installed five new KPK leaders, despite concerns over Jokowi’s alleged intervention, given that they were selected by the latter’s administration.
The PDI-P has alleged that the KPK’s suspect naming and travel bans were part of a bigger political agenda to “disrupt the party” ahead of its national congress next year, when the party is slated to elect a new chairperson.
The party has previously accused Jokowi of seeking ways to replace Hasto with an ally of his so he could influence the course of the leadership race.
“We suspect political motives behind [Hasto] being named a suspect, particularly since he has been outspoken in amplifying the party’s harsh stance against attempts to undermine democracy toward the end of Jokowi’s term,” PDI-P executive Ronny Berty Talapessy in charge of legal affairs told a press conference on Tuesday.
“The party’s stern opposition [to Jokowi] was also apparent when it expelled him,” Ronny said.
He told The Jakarta Post on Thursday the travel bans on Hasto and Yasonna were part of “a political operation”.
The feud between Jokowi and the party that brought him to power came to a head last week, when PDI-P matriarch Megawati formally expelled the former president, Vice President Gibran and Jokowi’s son-in-law Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution for openly going against the party line in February’s presidential election.
Jokowi’s dismissal letter, signed by Megawati and Hasto, noted that the former president “abused his power to intervene at the Constitutional Court” when the court altered age rules for candidacy for public office in a way that allowed Gibran to run in the election.
When asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he had a hand in the investigation into Hasto, Jokowi said “I am retired”, Antara reported.
Political analyst Wasisto Raharjo Jati said on Thursday that, while the jury was still out on whether Jokowi had any involvement, the PDI-P should instead focus on proving Hasto’s innocence in court rather than playing the victim.
Another analyst, Adi Prayitno, said that the KPK would not have named Hasto a suspect purely as part of a political agenda.
“There is a widely believed narrative that Hasto was named a suspect after he became increasingly outspoken [against Jokowi]. While this is difficult to deny, it does not take anything away from the evidence the KPK has on Hasto’s involvement in the case,” he said.
KPK Political analyst Arya Fernandes of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said the KPK named Hasto a suspect because its new leaders were motivated to prove themselves to the public by making breakthroughs in cases that have been long stalled.
Activist Diky Anandya of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) disagreed that the KPK’s decision to name Hasto a suspect came had a bigger political motive.
“The reason the KPK did not name a Hasto all this time was because previous KPK leaders were ineffective,” Diky said.
Researcher Zaenur Rohman of Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Anticorruption Studies (Pukat UGM) also applauded the KPK’s new leadership for naming Hasto a suspect, saying that it was something the agency should have done in 2020 but likely failed to do because the PDI-P was the de-facto ruling party at the time. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
