The Attorney General's Office Denies Najelaa Shihab Is In The WA Group With Nadiem Makarim

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has denied that Najelaa Shihab is in the same WhatsApp group as Nadiem Makarim, a suspect in the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chromebooks at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019-2022.

"I confirm that related (Najela Shihab) in the group, it doesn't exist," said Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) at the AGO, Anang Supriatna, as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, October 28.

He also said that investigators at the Junior Attorney General for Special Actions (Jampidsus) had not yet examined Najelaa Shihab as a witness in the Chromebook procurement case.

"Until now there has been no summons for Najeela Shihab," he said.

Regarding Nadiem Makarim's legal team which said Najelaa Shihab was included in the same WhatsApp group as Nadiem, Anang considered it to be the right of the attorney to convey information.

"Surely the public prosecutor knows better, who has an interest in proving. Go ahead and what the legal advisor wants to say, but later what determines is not opinion, not outside the court opinion, what determines whether someone is guilty or not are legal facts revealed at trial," he said.

On Monday (27/10), Nadiem Makarim's attorney, Tabranimen, said that Najelaa Shihab was included in the WhatsApp group with his client as an education expert.

The WhatsApp group is called the 'Edu Org' which then changed its name to 'Mas Minister Core Team', and the 'Education Council' consisting of Nadiem Makarim, an education expert, IT expert, and Nadiem special staff, namely Jurist Tan andatur Handayani.

"There is Jurist Tan, there is fire, there is Najelaa, and others who actually discuss the same thing," said God.

He said that Najela's role in the group was to provide ideas or input to the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Separately, Najelaa Shihab, who is also the founder of the Center for Education and Policy Studies (PSPK), confirmed that he was included in the WhatsApp group with Nadiem Makarim.

"I am with a total of dozens of other people, in several WhatsApp groups with Nadiem Makarim and independent and external education partners, as well as ministry officials other than Nadiem Makarim," he said.

Najela said that his goal was to join the group to discuss suggestions and proposals for recommendations and study education policies according to PSPK's role in supporting the ministry, including the development of new students' curriculum and acceptance.

Nevertheless, he denied participating in the discussion, both directly and in the WhatsApp group, regarding the preparation or planning of the procurement of Chromebooks and IT equipment at the Ministry of Education and Culture.

"Because this program is not part of the scope of PSPK's work, namely the substance of education policies, not facilities and infrastructure," he said.

Previously, the Attorney General's Office (Kejagung) said that in August 2019, Nadiem Makarim Special Staff, Jurist Tan, together with Nadiem andatur Handayani formed a WhatsApp group called 'Mas Minister Core Team' which had already discussed the plan to procure an educational digitization program at the Ministry of Education and Culture if later Nadiem was appointed as Minister of Education and Culture.