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JAKARTA - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed Friday to defend the country's anti-graft agency after the arrest of two senior investigators, amid growing doubts about his war on corruption.
The president, re-elected in July on the back of promises to stamp out rampant graft in one of the world's most corrupt countries, also ordered his police chief to publicly explain the arrests.
Yudhoyono entered the fray after Industry Minister Mohammad Suleman Hidayat warned that the scandal could hurt the country's drive to attract foreign investment.
"If anyone wants to break up the KPK, I will be on the frontline to fight them," Yudhoyono said in a rare press conference, referring to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
He said it was important to resolve public "misperceptions" about a conflict between the police, prosecutors and the anti-corruption agency, but stressed that he could not interfere in the legal process.
The liberal ex-general earlier summoned ministers and officials to discuss the arrests Thursday of KPK investigators Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra Hamzah.
They have been under investigation for a range of alleged crimes including bribery and abuse of power, but police have said that they were only taken into custody to prevent them talking to the media.
Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri denied there was a conspiracy against the KPK.
"I will take action against my personnel if they were involved in trying to engineer the investigation," he told a press conference.
The case against the two officials has been front-page news for weeks, along with the ongoing trial of sacked KPK chief Antasari Azhar for allegedly masterminding the murder of a businessman earlier this year.
All the KPK officials deny any wrongdoing and Azhar, a former prosecutor, has angrily complained that he is being framed.
Hidayat said the latest police action against the KPK raised questions about legal certainty in Southeast Asia's biggest economy and needed to be resolved quickly.
"I am worried that this could affect the investment climate amid the government's efforts to increase investment," he was quoted as saying by Dow Jones Newswires.
The Indonesian media has been full of speculation that the police and the Attorney General's Office are trying to cripple the KPK, which has had success in rooting out high-level corruption since it was set up in 2004.
"The police and the Attorney General's Office have denied that they are trying to cripple the KPK but the facts say the opposite," said Danang Widoyoko, coordinator of the independent Indonesian Corruption Watch.
"The police arrested the suspended leaders of the KPK based on weak evidence... They arrest them first and find the evidence later."
Until now, Yudhoyono, 60, has avoided making any comment on the unfolding drama, except to back the legal process.
But the president may have been forced to act when he was mentioned in secretly taped phone conversations involving prosecutors and the relative of a corruption suspect.
One of the people in the tapes reportedly cites Yudhoyono as supporting a plot to sabotage the anti-graft commission.
The authenticity of the tapes, which have been widely reported in the local media, has not been confirmed but Yudhoyono has called for an investigation.
After the tapes were made public the Attorney General's Office recommended dropping the case against the two KPK investigators, but police arrested them two days later.
- AFP/ir
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