JAKARTA: A former Indonesian education minister and the founder of the country’s largest start-up warned on Tuesday (June 2) that investors have been spooked by growing legal risks in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, as he delivered his final defence plea in a high-profile corruption case.
Prosecutors alleged that former minister Nadiem Makarim had been involved in improper laptop procurement during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to US$125.64 million (S$161 million) in state losses.
In May, they sought an 18-year prison sentence for him and demanded that he pay about 6 trillion rupiah (S$430.5 million) in fines and restitution.
Makarim, who resigned as chief executive of technology start-up Gojek in 2019 to serve as education minister until 2024, has been accused of enriching himself to the tune of around 809 billion rupiah through the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome OS for schools between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors have said.
They alleged that Makarim created tender specifications that only fit the Chrome system to “make Google the sole controller of the education ecosystem in Indonesia”.
Standing before a panel of judges on June 2, Makarim denied his involvement in the procurement of the laptops and cast doubt over the veracity of the prosecutors’ claims that the laptops were more expensive than necessary.
“Experts and witnesses have said there were no state losses, no law violations, no self-enrichment or enriching others as well as corporations, no mens rea,” he said.
Prosecutors alleged that Google’s investment in Gojek’s parent company influenced the procurement of the laptops, and claimed that the ministry went ahead with the purchase of Chromebooks after Makarim met several times in 2020 with representatives of Google Asia Pacific and Google Indonesia.
Google has not been indicted.
Makarim said Google’s investment in Gojek was separate from the procurement.
In January, Google said its investments in Gojek-related entities occurred between 2017 and 2021, most of which pre-dated Makarim’s appointment as minister.
Makarim, a Harvard Business School graduate, said potential investors in Indonesia were worried by the legal uncertainties in his case and by the criminalisation of professionals.
“Young professionals are scared that they can become the next victims,” he said tearfully. “Business communities see a bad precedent from this case because they don’t understand why the case was put on trial.”
The court has so far imposed jail sentences of up to four and a half years on three officials linked to the ministry for their involvement in the case, including a technology consultant sentenced in May. - Reuters
