Temen Lectured As Witness: Hasto Twice Rejected Being Minister Of The Jokowi Era

The follow-up trial of the defendant Hasto Kristiyanto/PHOTO: Rizky Adytia-VOI

JAKARTA - Lecturer of Political Science from the University of Indonesia, Cecep Hidayat, said that PDIP Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto was offered twice to serve as minister. However, the offer was rejected.

This statement was conveyed by Cecep when presented as a mitigating witness for the defendant Hasto Kristiyanto in the trial of the alleged bribery case for the management of the replacement between the time (PAW) of the DPR for the 2019-2024 period and the obstruction of Harun Masiku's investigation.

During the trial, Hasto Kristiyanto's attorney, Ronny Talapessy, questioned whether he ever heard the story of Hasto who was offered high positions in government. Seba Cecep and Hasto were close friends when they studied at the Defense University (IDU).

"Witness, have you ever conveyed that you want to become a minister or want to become an official or not and the reason why you don't want to be a state official?" asked Ronny during a trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Friday, June 20.

Responding to this question, Cecep admitted that he had learned that Hasto had been offered twice to serve as a minister in the government of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). However, all the offers were rejected.

"As short as my memory and I can also see in the media, in 2014 Pak Hasto was offered by the Minister of State Secretary and 2019 was offered by the Minister of Communication and Information but was not accepted," he said.

The reason Hasto refused the offer was because he preferred to be a party administrator. Because, the honor is at the same level as state officials.

In addition, parties also play an important role in giving birth to regional heads and great state officials.

"Pak Hasto prefers to take care of the party. So in my view, in my opinion, in my opinion, being a party administrator is just as honorable as being a state official, being a minister, regional head, deputy regional head and so on. That is the same respect in his view," he said.

"The second is actually the need for a good party, a good institution so that it can give birth to regional heads, deputy regional heads, ministers and so on," continued Cecep.

In this case, Hasto together with advocate Donny Tri Istiqomah, former PDIP cadre Saeful Bahri, and Harun Masiku were charged with giving bribes of Rp 600 million to Wahyu Setiawan (KPU commissioner) in the 2019-2020 period.

This bribe is so that Wahyu seeks the KPU to approve the application of PAW for the South Sumatra Election Candidate (Sumsel) I on behalf of DPR members for the 2019-2024 period Riezky Aprilia to Harun Masiku.

Hasto was also charged with obstructing the investigation by ordering Harun, through the Aspiration House guard, Nur Hasan, to submerge Harun's cell phone into the water after the KPK OTT incident against Wahyu Setiawan.

Not only Harun Masiku's cellphone, Hasto is also said to have ordered his aide, Kusnadi, to drown his cell phone in anticipation of forced attempts by KPK investigators.

Hasto was charged with Article 21 and Article 5 paragraph (1) letter a or Article 13 of Law (UU) Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 in conjunction with Article 65 paragraph (1) and Article 55 paragraph (1) 1 in conjunction with Article 64 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.