Nunun Nurbaeti was arrested on Friday afternoon in Bangkok, Thailand. She arrived in Indonesia and has been undergoing health checks prior to questioning about her connection to the Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal in the House.
Nunun was accused of distributing bribes to lawmakers to back Miranda S. Goeltom’s bid to be a senior deputy governor position at the central bank.
While several lawmakers have been locked up in the case, Nunun, the key suspect, fled to Singapore just before the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) issued a travel ban against her. She later reportedly traveled to Cambodia before settling down in Bangkok, Thailand.
Nunun presents us with an enigma. She frequently claimed that she went abroad for medical treatment. Her husband, Adang Daradjatun, kept her location secret. But examining the enigma may have value.
First, the war on corruption shows growing progress after Nunun’s capture. Nunun was not the first graft suspect arrested by Interpol agents abroad. The former treasurer of the Democratic Party, Muhammad Nazaruddin, was arrested by Interpol agents in Colombia and returned to Indonesia.
It is a coincidence Nunun that was nabbed not long after the commemoration of World Anticorruption Day on Dec. 9?
It looks like the arrest of Nunun in Thailand is a gift for the nation’s anticorruption campaign.
The number of corruption scandals that the KPK is tackling, mainly the Nazaruddin and Nunun cases, should be seen as a blessing in disguise.
At first the situation seems bad, not only owing to the KPK’s heavy workload, but also due to public expectations about the nation’s anti-graft body.
It turns out that no one is untouchable and infamous long-time graft suspects — Nazaruddin, Nunun and even Miranda Goeltom, who was linked to Nunun — eventually received lengthy prison terms.
Expectations for the nation’s graft fight are increasing after the arrest of Nunun. It is now the turn of the KPK to uncover the vicious circle of corruption suspects, particularly those involving politicians and business tycoons.
The arrest of Nunun will not be a great success story if the KPK loses track of high-profile corruption suspects and their mighty political financiers. The KPK did the right thing by detaining the politicians. However, it should not just focus on those who allegedly accepted the bribes, but also on those who paid them.
Second, the arrest of Nunun is supposed to consolidate the country’s political elite against corruption as a common enemy. There must be consistent social engineering to treat corrupt officials, politicians, or businesspeople as persona non grata. Lawmakers could apply the approach by expelling corrupt suspects within their own political parties and circles.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) could kick things off by urging PKS lawmaker Adang Daradjatun, Nunun’s husband, to step down from the House. This should be seen as one way of penalizing crooked legislators.
At the same time, the National Police needs to stay impartial to probe deep into the alleged involvement of Adang, the former deputy chief of the National Police, with his wife’s case.
While he claimed that his wife was too ill to walk, people have been shocked to look at photographs showing her shopping at malls in Singapore and Thailand. The police along with the KPK must be more serious in upholding justice, especially when the culprits are powerful people.
The public is entitled to maximum transparency in the Nunun’s case. People seem to be no longer tolerant of the presumption of innocence for Nunun.
Anything coming out from her mouth to defend herself should be deemed unreliable and ignored. Transparency could be defined as placing society as critical partners to prevent the issue from diverting any further.
Third, the KPK is very likely to face a political counterattack. Some lawmakers could revive their bid to invoke the right of lawmakers to express an opinion on the Bank Century bailout scandal, which could ultimately lead to impeachment proceedings against Vice President Boediono, who was the central bank governor at the time of the controversial Rp 6.7 trillion bailout.
Other legislators could strike back through various policies relating to the KPK, such as limiting the allocation of funds regardless of extensive public support for the new KPK leaders.
Hence, the new KPK leadership is expected not to be torn about breaking open a major criminal case that could involve their friends or former superiors.
Despite large powers protecting Nunun with robust financial means, her arrest suggests that the integrated mechanism and strategy to hunt for and deal with graft suspects is setting the scene for victory for Indonesia’s graft busters in a long war on corruption.
The writer, a graduate of the University of Canberra, Australia, is a lecturer at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra.
