THE 18-page-long defense plea read out by an animated Gayus Halomoan in the South Jakarta District Court on Monday last week was poetically titled ‘A Clean Indonesia … Police Unease … My Elimination.’ In it, Gayus took aim at all sides: the police, prosecution service, lawyers, and also his old ‘alma mater,’ the Directorate General of Taxes.

For example, he accused the police of not being serious about following-up the leads he had g