Mafia at the Gates

This is a story about case brokers who ensnare suspects, even potential suspects, being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). They brazenly promise that freedom can be bought and sold, even inside the bastion of anticorruption. Furnished with authentic information on the results of criminal investigations, they offer assistance at fees of up to Rp20 billion. From a corruption case at the state-owned electricity company, PLN, a number of names emerged: two major players, several activists from organizations affiliated with Palace circles, as well as the son of a senior official at the KPK. The modus operandi of the game is to channel funds to “people inside the KPK’s office”—which is bartered with the transfer of detainees. The layers of security protecting cases at the KPK, as we know, are very tight. But to quote from a senior official at the institution, “the mafia has clever people.”