House Speaker Setya Novanto (Image Credit: KOMPAS.com/Andreas Lukas Altobeli)
Indonesians on the internet have taken to humor to deal with the latest KPK setback in fighting corruption. The anti-graft body has once again failed to arrest House Speaker Setya Novanto on charges related to the e-KTP scandal. This time the honorable speaker disappeared when KPK came to arrest him on Wednesday night, triggering a rise in the Twitter hashtag #IndonesiaMencariPapah (Indonesia Looking for Papah/Daddy).
The nickname "Papah" was given to Novanto after the "Papah Minta Saham" (Daddy's asking for shares) scandal in 2015 in which Novanto was recorded by Freeport Indonesia Director Maroef Sjamsoeddin allegedly attempting to extort 20 percent of shares in the company. This recording was however deemed inadmissible as evidence by the Constitutional Court. This was not the only case to which Novanto was linked, his Wikipedia page listing over half a dozen of other cases from rice smuggling to toxic waste imports.
Perhaps the most infuriating case involving Novanto is the e-KTP scandal, which has left millions of Indonesians without workable ID. This latest saga began when KPK indicted him in July of this year for his involvement in thecase. However, Novanto claimed sickness to avoid the summons. To support this claim, a photo of the Speaker in a hospital bed was released. This was widely mocked by netizens and irregularities in the medical equipment in the photo were pointed out. After some time the charges against Novanto were dropped by a pre-trial judge, and a few days later he left the hospital.
Turning to humor, memes altering the picture to produce hilarious results were posted by various people on the net. However, Novanto did not take kindly to these pictures, and instead reported as many as 32 people to the police, who have arrested at least one person on charges of violating Indonesia's draconian ITE law (Information and Electronic transaction law).
Not deterred, KPK relaunched the investigation, and with new evidence obtained from the FBI was able to once again charge Setya Novanto. This is where the latest saga began, with the KPK coming to Novanto's house on Wednesday to arrest the Speaker. However, KPK had to leave empty handed as the Speaker was nowhere to be found. Setya Novanto's whereabouts were finally revealed only about 24 hours later, when it was reported that he is once again hospitalized, this time due to "injuries" suffered during a car accident. It was reported that the Toyota Fortunner he was riding in hit a utility pole on the way to the KPK headquarters.
Meme showing a utility pole being taken to the ICU (Image Credit: https://www.facebook.com/komikfaktap/)
Netizens in disbelief over what is seen as the latest attempt to avoid arrest started launching the hashtag #savetianglistrik (save the utility pole) and many humorous accounts started on Twitter, including one cheeky one claiming to be said utility pole: @TiangListrik_ID.
For now it seems Setya Novanto has once again evaded the KPK, and Indonesians can only turn to humor to deal with the tragedy.
Further reading:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...an-parliament-speaker-under-guard-in-hospital
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesias-speaker-in-hospital-avoids-arrest
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