Indonesia’s independent anti-corruption body, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), had a great number of huge successes last year, but their takedowns of numerous high level politicians have no doubt also made the commission a great number of powerful enemies as well. This morning, police found evidence of bombs at the homes of two of the KPK’s top officials and, while it’s not clear specifically who targeted them or why , it’s a troubling sign that there are still forces out there trying to intimidate the graft busters.
Police confirmed reports of separate bomb threats that were found this morning at the homes of KPK Chairman Agus Rahardjo in Bekasi and Deputy Chairman Laode M. Syarif in Jakarta.
“Right now, we are forming a team, assisted by Special Anti-Terrorism Unit Densus 88, to investigate the incidents,” National Police spokesperson Dedi Prasetyo said at National Police Headquarters in South Jakarta today as quoted by Tempo.
A device resembling a Molotov cocktail was found in front of Laode’s residence at around 5:30 am, reportedly with a still-lit fuse. However, the device apparently did not explode and neither the KPK deputy, nor his wife or driver (who found the device), were injured.
There were also witness reports from neighbors who claimed to hear the sound of glass shattering coming from the house the night before, which, along with burn marks found along the walls of Laode’s driveway, led them to believe that another Molotov had been thrown at the house earlier and exploded. Police have not confirmed that theory, however.
Meanwhile, a device said to resemble a pipe bomb was found by a security guard hung on the fence in front of Agus’ house early this morning. The KPK chairman was not present at the time of the incident.
After inspecting the device, police said that it had no explosive capability despite its appearance. Police said that sweeps of the two KPK leaders’ homes did not turn up any other signs of bombs.
Despite the lack of explosives, it clearly looks like somebody was attempting to send a message to the KPK and were able to get close enough to the homes of its two leaders to be able to make credible bomb threats, which is plenty alarming on its own.
KPK officials have long faced intimidation and threats from parties opposed to their anti-corruption efforts. The most disturbing example of this is what happened to Novel Baswedan, the KPK investigator who was attacked with acid one morning in 2017. Police say they still have no leads in the case.
Despite suffering severe injuries including partial blindness, Novel went back to work at the KPK last year following his recovery. We expect Agus, Laode and other KPK officials to be similarly uncowed by efforts to intimidate them, and with any luck 2019 will see them take down many more corrupt officials.
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