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Indonesia's Ruling Democratic Party Must Lose Corruption Suspects: Analysts
Ezra Sihite, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Rangga Prakoso | February 07, 2012

University of Indonesia political expert Iberamsjah said that Yudhoyono’s speech defending party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, pictured, in the name of the presumption of innocence would not help the party but rather speed up its destruction. (Antara Photo/File) University of Indonesia political expert Iberamsjah said that Yudhoyono’s speech defending party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, pictured, in the name of the presumption of innocence would not help the party but rather speed up its destruction. (Antara Photo/File)
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Valkyrie
10:17am Feb 8, 2012

Wonderland....

'Those' from his supporters are peanuts for him.

Hmmm....maybe the maiden flight will head for Zurich?

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Presidential plane = carte blanche.

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blightyboy
9:22am Feb 8, 2012

padt, Valkyrie, RuleBritannia - You have pretty much said it all.

Yudhoyono has led this country into a very dark place. When you think he cannot possibly screw things up any more, he does it, spectacularly. His political naivety, weakness of character, and total absence of any shred of charisma, are dragging this country down and down. The man is a walking disaster [edit]

RuleBritannia
6:54am Feb 8, 2012

It is often said a country gets the government it deserves. Sadly this level of greed, dishonesty and corruption can be found at every level of society and has become the norm. Ultimately change must come from the top and the country needs a strong, honest leader to rally behind who is not effectively bound and gagged by the fringe minorities, but is in fact likely to get Bakrie, who could push the country over the edge.

Wonderland
5:10pm Feb 7, 2012

Valkyrie, and where do you suppose sBY's very close supporters were transferring the stolen money to?? He just likes to keep his hands clean and let his sheep do the dirty work while he retains the mantle of Mr Clean!

Valkyrie
3:00pm Feb 7, 2012

The president has once again made a great mistake. It's becoming a second nature for him.

The Dems are heading down, down deep into the dark abyss.

His very own close supporters have stole right under his nose and he allegedly is not aware of it?

Goodness me...he's the president of a country with a population of 250 million people.

Apart from composing tunes, eating 7 meals a day and singing, what else is he doing? Hmmph! Nero incarnated.


The Democratic Party will continue to decline in popularity unless President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono removes those who are alleged to have been involved in graft cases, analysts agreed on Monday.

University of Indonesia political expert Iberamsjah said that Yudhoyono’s speech defending party chairman Anas Urbaningrum in the name of the presumption of innocence would not help the party but rather speed up its destruction.

“It is time for a massive clearing out to dump those members allegedly involved in corruption. This is more about politics rather than legal problems. If people feel that you are involved in the scam, then you must leave until you are proven innocent,” Iberamsjah said.

In a speech on Sunday, Yudhoyono said he had decided to keep Anas in his post but indicated graft suspect Angelina Sondakh, the party’s deputy secretary general, would be removed .

The speech was in response to increased speculation of the involvement of some of the party’s members in a graft case surrounding the construction of the Southeast Asian Games athletes’ village in Palembang. Both the party’s former treasurer, Muhammad Nazaruddin, and Angelina have been named suspects by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in the case. Anas has not been named a suspect.

During the trial, several witnesses and suspects, especially Nazaruddin, accused Anas of receiving some of the graft money.

The scandal threatens to weaken the Democrats’ prospects in the 2014 elections, with a series of surveys indicating that support for the party was falling amid a flurry of negative headlines about the its links to the graft scandal.

A survey by the Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) published on Sunday showed that the party had fallen to third place behind the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) after leading since 2009.

Political analyst Arbi Sanit said Yudhoyono, the Democratic Party’s chief of patrons, must suspend Anas pending the results of the KPK’s investigation.

“This is an extraordinary condition for the party, so there is no time to be weak. People say SBY has no guts. He thinks he’s just being polite, but it’s very negative for the party,” he said.

Arbi said that any party officials mentioned in the scandal, including Sports and Youth Minister Andi Mallarangeng and lawmaker Mirwan Amir, should be suspended from their posts to stop the party’s popularity from falling any further.

Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst from Charta Politika, said that Yudhoyono’s speech to the public was useless because it would be better for him to unite the party internally amid growing rifts.

“The speech is very far from resolving the party’s problems. He should talk to all members, demanding them to stay solid from external attacks,” he said.

A day after Yudhoyono defended Anas, a senior member of the party, Ruhut Sitompul, demanded again that the Democrat chairman step down.

“What I fear is that we get continued sanctions from the public and our rating continues to decline. It will be very damaging for us if, say, in two to three years we are in this kind of situation,” he said.

Ruhut said Anas’s deliberate stepping down would help the party regain its support from the public.