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Indonesian President Joko Widodo is now facing a major test as parliament urged him to immediately install Budi Gunawan as the national police chief.
South Jakarta District Court on Monday fulfilled a pretrial request filed by Budi to invalidate the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) move to name Budi as a graft suspect. Judge Sarpin Rizaldi approved the appeal filed by Gen. Budi Gunawan, saying that investigation process against him was not justifiable.
Budi was declared a suspect in a graft case on Jan. 12 by the nation's anti-graft body KPK. He was accused of amassing 57 billion rupiah (about 4.4 million U.S. Dollars) from several illegal sources during his service from 2003 to 2006.
Budi was the former aide of the leader of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Megawati Soekarnoputri who served as the nation's president from July 2001 to October 2004.
Budi was the only candidate nominated by President Widodo to take the post of the national police chief. He got the endorsement from the parliament to become the national police chief shortly after being declared as a graft suspect by the KPK. "He (the president) had initially said that he would wait the results of the appeal (before taking the decision). Now the legal verdict has been issued. We would ask the parliament to send him a letter and ask him to install Budi," Trimedya Pandjaitan, a legislator of the Commission III for legal affairs at the parliament said on Monday.
Prominent state administration analyst Margarito Kamis said that the president has no more excuse to delay the installment of Budi Gunawan as the national police chief. "By waiting the results of the appeal process, the president seemingly waits for fixed legal legitimation to install Budi Gunawan. Now it was cleared that Budi is no longer a suspect. He must be installed immediately," Margarito said Monday.
President Widodo set up a special team called Team of 9 to advise him on related issues that lead to a serious conflict between the nation's legal sector, police and KPK, a move questioned by several parties in the country.
Anti-corruption activists and several parties in the country had shown full support for KPK, which they regarded as the last fortress of the nation's campaign against corruption,
It is widely seen here that installment of Budi may put the president's integrity at stake regarding the nation's anti- corruption drive.
Reports said that the president has had a meeting with Budi Gunawan in Bogor presidential palace after the court rule and no decision has been made so far by the president regarding the installment of Budi Gunawan.