Johnny G. Plate Becomes Top People According To Netray Monitoring

The Attorney General's Office has named the Minister of Communication and Information Johnny G. Plate as a suspect in the alleged corruption case of the 4G Base Transceiver Station (BTS) tower construction project and supporting infrastructure 1,2, 3, 4 and 5 BAKTI Kominfo in 2020-2022.

The determination of the suspect raises suspicion. The public questioned whether this is a form of punishment for the Nasdem Party which is starting not in line with the ruling party? Or is this a way to reduce the electability of the Nasdem Party as one of the parties that carries Anies Baswedan as a presidential candidate in the 2024 election?

As is known, apart from serving as a minister, Johnny also serves as Secretary General of the NasDem Party

In its report, Netray found at least 2,818 articles regarding the corruption case of Johnny G. Plate from 203 total online news media during the period 15-22 May 2023.

On May 15, 2023, media reports are still discussing the alleged involvement of Johnny G. Plate. Johnny is known to have first met the summons of the Attorney General's Office on February 14, 2023. The intensity of the news then increased significantly on May 17, 2023, just as Johnny was officially named a suspect.

Along with the steps taken by the General Chairperson of the NasDem Party, Surya Paloh, who immediately gathered his party officials at NasDem Tower, Gondangdia, Menteng, Central Jakarta on the same day.

Netray observed that there were a number of popular vocabularys that appeared in articles about Johnny G. Plate's topics, such as cases, bagny, suspects, Nasdem, and Surya Paloh.

"The word NasDem is mentioned in 8,814 articles while the word Surya Paloh is mentioned in 4,685 articles," wrote Netray in its report on May 24, 2023.

In the Top People category, Johnny G. Plate's name ranks at the top as the main focus of this topic. Then, in the Top Organizations category, the Attorney General's Office became the organization most mentioned, followed by the Ministry of Communications and Informatics.

Regarding the alleged politicization and criminalization in the Johnny G. Plate case, a number of officials have denied it. Deputy V of the Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP) Jaleswari Pramodhawardani said that the decision of the Attorney General's Office investigators to determine the Minister of Communication and Information as a suspect in corruption cases was not related to political reasons.

Head of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) Moeldoko also emphasized that the determination of the suspect in the case was purely a legal issue. He hopes that the public will not be trapped in the issue that had strengthened.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, who now serves as the Acting Minister of Communication and Information (Plt Menkominfo), also ensured that the Johnny G. Plate case was not related to certain politics or presidential candidates.

Case investigations began in June 2022 before the NasDem Party announced Anies Baswedan as a presidential candidate in October 2022.

"So, this is not politicization, it has nothing to do with elections, with presidential candidates," Mahfud MD told reporters at the State Palace in Jakarta on May 22, 2023.

The irregularity, according to Mahfud, began to be detected when the fund user, namely the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, postponed his accountability report from December 2021 to March 2022. It turned out that until the specified time limit, the report was still not true.

NasDem Party News in the flow of discussion of the Johnny G. Plate case. (Netray)

The project worth more than Rp28 trillion initially ran smoothly in the 2006-2019 period. There was a problem when the disbursement of funds was around Rp10 trillion in 2020-2021. Apparently, there was no accountability. Then, Kominfo asked for an extension of the construction of the BTS tower on the grounds of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It should not be legally allowed, but given an extension until March 21, 2022," said Mahfud.

Then in March, Kominfo only reported about 1,100 towers of the 4,200 targeted towers. When checked via satellite, only 958 towers were traced.

"From the 958 it is not known whether it can be used properly or not, because after 8 samples were taken, none of them functioned according to specifications," said Mahfud.

As for one BTS tower, said Mahfud, the value is estimated to only reach Rp2.1 trillion. Thus, there is still misuse of funds or unclear funds that are not accounted for because the value of each tower budgeted reaches more than Rp. 8 trillion.

Apart from Johnny G. Plate, the AGO has also named five suspects in the corruption case for the construction of 4G BTS.

They are the President Director of BAKTI Kominfo Anang Achmad Latif, President Director of PT Mora Telematika Indonesia Gahole Menak, and Human Development (Hudev) Expert at the University of Indonesia in 2020 Yohan Suryanto. Also Account Director of Integrated Account Department of PT Huawei Tech Investment, Mukti Ali and Commissioner of PT Solitech Media Sinergy, Irwan Hermawan.

The Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) said the value of state financial losses due to the BTS 4G BAKTI corruption case at the Ministry of Communication and Information reached more than IDR 8 trillion.

The state financial losses consist of three things, namely the cost of the preparation of supporting studies, markups, and BTS payments that have not been built.