Miranda Goeltom Case

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s anti-graft agency on Wednesday named 26 former and current members
of parliament as suspects in a bribery case linked to Miranda Goeltom’s appointment as the central
bank’s senior deputy governor in 2004.

The case has attracted considerable interest from foreign investors and Indonesians because it
highlighted the practice of paying money to members of parliament to guarantee their support for a
particular appointment, legislation or policy.

“The heart of corruption in this country is in politics. So the jailing of lawmakers is important to stop
corruption at its heart,” said Febri Hendri of Indonesia Corruption Watch.

The politicians, who were serving on the parliamentary financial commission that selects senior central
bank officials, allegedly received travellers’ cheques worth between 150 million rupiah ($16,610) and
1.45 billion rupiah ($160,600) in exchange for nominating Goeltom.

Goeltom, whose term as senior deputy governor ended last year, has always maintained that she did not
know about the payments. She could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Corruption Eradication Commission said it was still investigating three other parliamentarians in the
same case as well as the source of the funds. Local media have reported that the funds came from an
Indonesian businessman.

The corruption court has already sentenced four other members of parliament to jail in the same case.