|
JAKARTA - A decision by Indonesia's top court to quash the corruption conviction of Akbar Tandjung, the House speaker, has had an immediate political impact with a popular candidate for the presidential nomination of his Golkar party pulling out in protest.
Indonesia's Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a three-year sentence against Mr Tandjung for misappropriating Rp40bn ($4.8m, €3.7m, £2.5m) in state funds in adecision labelled by local activists as an embarrassment for the country's judiciary and Jakarta's supposed fight against corruption.
The decision prompted the original trial judge to say he would offer his resignation. But it also prompted the withdrawal of Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Jogjakarta from the Golkar race, reducing its cast of presidential candidates to six. While the sultan had been seen to be lagging behind Mr Tandjung, Golkar's chairman, and his main rival, retired General Wiranto, his popularity on Java, home to the majority of Indonesia's 147m voters, made him an important figure for Golkar.
The sultan was also unequivocal in relaying why he quit the race, telling reporters yesterday that his "main reason" for abandoning it after months of work had been the Supreme Court's verdict. General Wiranto, Mr Tandjung's now-bitter political rival, took the verdict in his stride, visiting the Golkar chairman at his Jakarta home late Thursday to offer his congratulations.
But activists yesterday lashed out against the verdict, calling for a moratorium on future decisions by the Supreme Court and for all of its judges to be subjected to scrutiny. "This is the biggest judicial scandal of the reform era," said A. Muhammad Asrun, the head of Judicial Watch Indonesia, a legal monitoring group. Local analysts and western diplomats said yesterday that the political repercussions remained unclear.
While the verdict freed Mr Tandjung to make a run at Golkar's nomination, Gen Wiranto's campaign appeared to be building support in important rural areas, said Umar Juoro, an economist with close ties to the Golkar party. Some analysts argued yesterday that this week's verdict clears the way for an alliance between Golkar and President Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P that would see Mr Tandjung become Mrs Megawati's vice president.
Mr Juoro, however, said with polls indicating increasing support for Golkar and static support for the PDI-P, many Golkar members were looking forward to a win at April 5 parliamentary elections and a wholehearted run at the presidency later this year.
|
|
|
There are no reactions on this blog entry yet. Be the first one to give a reaction here!
|
Log in to write a reaction
|
You are not logged in to the website. You have to be logged in to write a reaction on this blog entry.
· If you already have an account, please login.
· If you have lost your password, please retrieve it.
· If you don't have an account yet, you can create one.
|
|
|
ABOUT THIS ENTRY |
Add this blog entry to your email, your own blog, MySpace, Facebook, or whatsoever via AddThis:
|

Login if you want to receive emails for reactions on this blog entry. You will receive an update as soon as a reaction on this blog entry is posted.
|
|
Looking for e-tickets for flights in Indonesia? Here's your solution! Order your e-tickets at ticketindonesia.info.
|
BLOG ARCHIVE |
· 2015, 28 entries
· 2014, 591 entries
· 2013, 750 entries
· 2012, 1061 entries
· 2011, 792 entries
· 2010, 644 entries
· 2009, 916 entries
· 2008, 504 entries
· 2007, 725 entries
· 2006, 1014 entries
· 2005, 723 entries
· 2004, 558 entries
· 2003, 525 entries
· 2002, 375 entries
· 2001, 162 entries
|
POPULAR TAGS |
Automatically generated every hour
|
EXCHANGE RATES |
@ 17 May 2018 18:12 CET
|
@ 17 May 2018 21:58 CET
|
@ 15 May 2018 08:42 CET
|
@ 07 May 2018 07:48 CET
|
@ 16 May 2018 09:18 CET
|
@ 17 May 2018 00:46 CET
|
|
Go to 'exchange rates' |
|