One-time Indonesian Minister’s Arrest: Don’t Cross Jokowi
Former president’s clout outlives executive tenure
At some point in the new year, Indonesia’s attorney general’s office is scheduled to prosecute Tom Lembong, the Harvard-trained 53-year-old former trade minister and investment board chairman who broke with former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and became his fierce critic. It is a case regarded by many in Jakarta as a warning that it is still dangerous to cross the former president despite his departure from power on October 20, to be replaced by his ally, Prabowo Subianto. In Indonesia, cases like this have one outcome.
Lembong has been in a Jakarta jail since late October. The investigation, which began over a year ago as prosecutors reportedly searched vainly for evidence, has generated a wave of social media criticism of the new government and raised long-simmering concerns among opposition groups, activists, and the foreign business community, not only about Jokowi but Prabowo’s own commitment to democracy as a onetime general and influential figure in the authoritarian 31-year reign of the strongman Suharto, Prabowo’s past father-in-law. Lembong last week lost his pre-trial appeal and faces trial at an as-yet undetermined date.
The fact that the case is limited to just the former minister and not to other officials or companies risks damaging Prabowo’s credibility, critics say, and follows Jokowi’s use of law enforcement agencies to pursue political enemies. It has become so controversial that the attorney general’s office was forced to defend it, local media reported. “There are rumors that we’re criminalizing him, but our actions and the evidence are all clear,” its director of prosecution for special crimes told reporters outside the South Jakarta court. There is no such thing as political enemies, he said.
The case, brought nine days after Prabowo took office, revolves around a Rp400 million (US$25.2 million) arrangement for a private company to import 105,000 tonnes of raw sugar into the country in 2015 and 2016, supposedly at a time when Indonesia had a sugar surplus. There is no indication that the arrangement resulted in a loss to the government, critics say, and there is no paper trail to indicate that Lembong profited from it. Last week, attorney general’s office spokesperson Harli Siregar acknowledged that officials have yet to decide whether Lembong benefited from financial flows related to the importation.
The attorney general’s claim there was a surplus of sugar at the time of the transaction was false, a sugar industry source told Asia Sentinel, along with a claim that the sugar was sold at twice the market rate. Sugar, the source said, is imported and sold into the market at a price set by the government. The market, he said, stabilized with no loss to the state. Lembong has repeatedly said he consulted with Jokowi on import policy and told local media he is “committed to uncovering the truth and upholding justice.”
Lembong helped build Jokowi's international image during his first term as his chief English language speech writer. The architect of the 2019 Australia-Indonesia bilateral trade agreement, called the most extensive in Indonesia’s history, he broke with the president in the second term after he began questioning the wisdom of piling too much debt on state-owned companies for massive infrastructure projects like Jokowi’s new capital Nusantara, rising slowly, far behind schedule, from the jungle 1,600 km from Jakarta, in East Kalimantan, and the 150-km Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project, which was delayed for months and saddled the government with extra expense. He was also a critic of the Jokowi government’s policy to require minerals, particularly nickel, to be processed domestically, which has led to a spate of industrial accidents, environmental degradation, and resentment over mainland Chinese ownership of an estimated 90 percent of the industry.
For investors, according to international sources in the business community, Lembong was open and helpful as trade minister, providing sound guidance and didn’t appear to be serving special interests, a rarity in Indonesia, where ministers seem to regard a cabinet post as a ticket to riches. In his second term, an increasingly autocratic Jokowi demanded loyalty, jettisoning more independent voices. As the end of his 10 years in power approached, insiders say, he sought unsuccessfully to force changes in the constitution to seek a third five-year term but was thwarted by public disapproval. He worked assiduously to preserve his clout with a sustained flurry of political machinations that led to in effect taking over Golkar, the nation's second-largest party, and trying to make it impossible for any significant opposition to emerge to blunt the power of his alliance with Prabowo. He also engineered the successful nomination of his eldest son Gibran as Prabowo’s running mate. These attempts to preserve his control cost him significantly after being praised initially as a new kind of leader for Indonesia.
Lembong later joined forces with Anies Baswedan, also a former Jokowi minister, who ousted a Jokowi ally, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, as governor of Jakarta in an ugly campaign that saw Basuki, a Christian, jailed on blasphemy charges against the Quran. With Lembong assisting his campaign, Anies contended unsuccessfully against Prabowo in the 2024 presidential campaign, finishing a distant third. But Anies is still a force in politics and is said to be working to create a new political movement to challenge the current political establishment. He is regarded as the most feasible opposition presidential hopeful in the next general election, which must be held in 2029.
“Lembong spread his skepticism far and wide,” said a business source. “This is an obviously political prosecution and it is a bad sign. Prabowo is allowing it to go forward and that is not a good look for his new government. The best outcome, since they won't stop this, is to let him go after he is convicted. In this kind of prosecution, fairness is not on the table. But with Indonesia wanting respect and membership in the OECD, this sort of thing is bad. Of course, the attorney general has long been tainted and used by the government to settle political scores and exact revenge. It would be too much to prosecute Anies, so Lembong is the example.”