The Fast & the Spurious

FOR a long time following the change of the old to the new administration, Dahlan Iskan, who had served as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) minister under the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was nowhere to be seen. When he did reappear under the public spotlight, it was to face a number of charges, starting with 'fictitious rice fields' in West Kalimantan, suspected graft in the construction of state-owned electricity company PLN's Java-Bali and Nusa Tenggara relay stations and alleged corruption in the manufacturing of 16 electric cars two years ago. He is yet to be charged with one more case, involving the missing assets of provincial government-owned Panca Wira Usaha company, which Dahlan led from 1999 to 2009.

The Attorney General, the East Java Prosecutor and the Jakarta City Prosecutor seemed to be racing to get him indicted. Perhaps to erase the impression Dahlan was being 'mob-attacked', last week the Attorney General announced it was taking all of Dahlan's cases and placing them under one roof. Indeed, it would be impossible to coordinate the scheduling of his court appearances pertaining to each of his cases, separately.