(Tempo English) Rising Sun: Nasdem-Linkage dilemma about New General Attorney

12/12/2018

His acumen in mixing business with politics has made Surya Paloh an expert in coasting from one regime to another. Raised under the auspices of the New Order's topmost family, he succeeds in retaining his influence today, standing behind the reformist government of Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla.

Surya built his extensive business network through connections with the most powerful family during the New Order period. He was a close friend of Suharto's third son, Bambang Trihatmodjo. They were active members of the Communication Forum of Sons-Daughters of Indonesian Veterans, and the Golongan Karya functional group, a precursor to the powerful Golkar Party. It was at this time that Surya and his associates built the Metro television station, which proved to be useful in supporting Surya's political career.

When Suharto's authoritarian regime fell, instead of being dragged down with it, Surya managed to strengthen his businesses simultaneously establishing ties with the new government by buying cheap assets from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, as it sought to salvage banks by auctioning off their debts and transactions.

In 2004, when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla won the election, Surya stood in the front line of Golkar politicians to congratulate them, although his party associates still supported Megawati Soekarnoputri, Yudhoyono's main contender for the presidency. Together with businessman and current Golkar chair Aburizal Bakrie, Surya endorsed Kalla to be Golkar's new chairman. In doing so, he helped push the party to join SBY's coalition. During this period Surya's businesses became stronger, particularly as he ventured into the extractive industry, such as oil and coal.

However, the political alliance broke up five years later, when Aburizal became the Golkar chairman. Surya parted ways with the country's biggest party and formed his own people's organization, calling it the National Democrat, which later morphed into the NasDem Party. Aided by the government and his own television station, Surya's party won 6.72 percent in the legislative election.

His acumen in reading the political map won him further inroads into the political elite. He entered into an alliance with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), endorsing Jokowi and Kalla in the presidential election. Abiding by the mantra 'coalition without conditions', NasDem did not immediately make demands. It did not insist, for example, that one of its party members take a cabinet post when Jokowi and Kalla won the election last July. In fact, they campaigned even harder than the PDI-P, Jokowi's own party, to win the votes.

But Surya worked even harder to expand his business empire. Even before Jokowi officially became president, Surya was seen introducing his business partner, Sam Pa alias Ghui Ka Leung, a businessman from China, to Jokowi. According to reports of some international media, Sam Pa is involved in many questionable businesses in Africa, such as his role in importing oil from Angola-based company, Sonangol. He and Surya have met with Jokowi a few times at the Jakarta governor's residence also to discuss investments in other sectors, such as infrastructure.

Surya and Sam Pa's offer sounded attractive: importing oil from Sonangol would save the government Rp12 trillion a year. And Jokowi's main concern is how to save money. Not surprisingly, Jokowi readily agreed to Surya's proposal. Two days after he swore-in his cabinet, Jokowi welcomed at the State Palace Angola Vice President Manuel Domingos Vicente, who is also CEO of Sonangol.

Surya would soon reap this political investment. Jokowi allocated three key ministerial posts to NasDem: the coordinating minister for politics, law and security; spatial and agrarian affairs minister; and the forestry and environment minister. Perhaps it's a coincidence that these two last positions are linked to Surya's business interests in mining, palm oil, property and land acquisitions.

Last week, the president gave one more chair to NasDem by appointing Prasetyo as the new attorney general. This former deputy attorney-general for general crimes who recently won in the legislative elections for the 2014-2019 period, was in fact Surya's choice. This was quite obvious when Prasetyo paid Surya his respects more than once following his oath-taking ceremony last Friday.

So far, no legal or ethical breach is evident in Surya's way of mixing politics with business. But the president should make it clear that the positions allocated to Surya's party members do not create conflict of interests in the future. He must oversee them tightly to ensure the ministries led by NasDem politicians do not curry special favors to Surya's business interests. The new attorney general must also distance himself from interventions.

Jokowi, therefore must be constantly on the ball and be assisted by someone agile enough to move around the State Palace to prevent questionable interests from interfering in government affairs. The presidency, as he has often promised, must be able to control potential deviations, no matter how small, in each and every one of his ministries. This includes the business and political interests of one Surya Paloh.

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(Tempo English) Rising Sun: Nasdem-Linkage dilemma about New General Attorney