Whenever Indonesian House Speaker Setya Novanto comes to our attention, it’s usually because he’s alleged to be involved in some huge political scandal, or he just said/did something silly.
This latest incident falls into the latter category, possibly brought about by the former.
The Golkar party politician is one of dozens of high-ranking officials alleged to be involved in the massive e-KTP electronic ID procurement mega corruption scandal (an allegation that, funnily enough, has not caused nearly as much public outrage in Indonesia as Ahok’s alleged blasphemy). The Corruption Eradication Committee (KPK) this week barred Novanto from overseas travel as investigation into the case is underway.
Novanto has so far dodged reporters’ questions about his travel ban, like yesterday afternoon, when he skipped past eager journalists by appearing to be locked in a phone conversation as he entered the parliament building.
But one eagle-eyed radio journalist, who goes by the handle @reporterjail (naughty reporter) on Twitter, spotted something unusual about Novanto’s phone and posted this photo on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/reporterjail/status/851650992605085696
Unlike most smartphones these days, Novanto’s phone screen did not black out when pressed against his ear during the apparent phone call. Instead, it appears to show the chat selection screen on WhatsApp still open.
In subsequent tweets, @reporterjail said someone “close to Novanto” clarified to him that Novanto’s iPhone screen does not black out when receiving calls. But when they tried out the theory on someone else’s iPhone, the screen totally blacked out.
Regardless, the parliament reporters did not manage to ask Novanto about his travel ban yesterday, meaning the house speaker’s apparent ploy worked.
Novanto’s rise to the top of parliament has been marred by scandal. In December 2015, he was forced to step down as house speaker after he allegedly tried to extort $1.8 billion of shares from US mining giant Freeport McMoran. A year later, he was reappointed as house speaker, the extortion scandal seemingly forgotten by the public.
Novanto is also infamous for appearing to support then-US presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2015 while he was still house speaker. During a press conference, Trump asked Novanto, “Do they like me in Indonesia?” to which our house speaker replied, “Yes, highly,” on the nation’s behalf.
And then, there were times when Novanto said the darndest things, like, “Nobody is corrupt in parliament”. A month after saying that, KPK barred Novanto from overseas travel, and placed dozens other politicians, including parliament members, under investigation for the e-KTP graft case.
