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Support Still StrongFor KPK Deputies
Nivell Rayda | June 25, 2010

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Indonesians are increasingly undecided as to the guilt of Corruption Eradication Commission deputies Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto in a Rp 5.1 billion bribery case, according to a poll released on Thursday.

Arman Salam, director of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), which conducted the poll, insisted on Thursday that only a minority of the public believed the officials of the antigraft commission, also known as the KPK, had taken bribes from businessman Anggodo Widojo.

“Although there is a difference from the earlier survey, marked by the increase in undecided or unsure respondents, the percentage of those who truly believe that Bibit and Chandra had received bribe money [19 percent] remains roughly the same,” Arman said.

The latest LSI report shows that 47.1 percent of the respondents doubted Chandra played a role in the bribery scandal, with 46.3 percent believing Bibit was also probably clean.

At least 33.6 percent of those surveyed said that they definitively believed Chandra was innocent and 32.1 percent saying the same of Bibit. The report shows a fall in public sentiment from a similar LSI survey conducted in January, showing that 55.7 percent believed that Chandra was innocent and 56.1 percent that Bibit had not taken bribes.

The KPK deputies were accused last year of extorting businessman Anggodo Widjojo out of Rp 5.1 billion ($555,000) in exchange for dropping graft charges against Anggodo’s fugitive brother, Anggoro. Both have repeatedly denied the claims.

In response to the latest survey, Indonesia Corruption Watch chairman Danang Widoyoko said that the public needed to remember the hearings at the Constitutional Court in November, when the KPK played 67 wiretapped recordings between Anggodo and several officials from the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.

The recordings strongly indicated a plot between Anggodo and law-enforcement officials to fabricate a bribery case against the KPK deputies. The hearing was televised live across the nation causing widespread public outcry.

“The recordings should be made public again. That would make people truly remember that Bibit and Chandra are innocent,” Danang said. “The people involved in the plot should be prosecuted.”

Following intense public pressure after the recordings were released, the AGO in November dropped the case against Bibit and Chandra on the grounds that pursuing it would be “harmful to society.”

The Jakarta High Court, upholding a lower court decision, this month ruled the AGO’s reasoning was not recognized by law and ordered the case to proceed.

The survey, however, shows that 53.9 percent of the population believes that the High Court decision was a move to undermine the much respected KPK.

Anggodo is now on trial at the Anti-Corruption Court on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice. Witnesses have told the court that Anggodo forced them to fabricate testimony against Bibit and Chandra.

Tensions between the law-enforcement agencies have been high since the KPK began winning convictions against high-level police officials and prosecutors.