Rows Of High-ranking Garuda Indonesia Officials Involved In Legal And Problematic Cases: Indra Setiawan, Emirsyah Satar, And Ari Ashkara

The Garuda Indonesia pilot is seen waving from inside the plane's cockpit. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be Garuda Indonesia's climax in business activities. The reason is, the current pressure blows strong rumors about the dissolution of the airline codenamed GI. An option that was quite taboo in the past.

In fact, Garuda Indonesia is currently in the midst of a big problem. The mounting debt piles of up to Rp70 trillion are suspected to be the main reason the government, as the controlling shareholder, is reluctant to disburse fresh funds as a helping spell.

The Garuda case 'flying short' was exacerbated by a series of internal elements that undermined the company's body from within. It is noted that the Minister for the Utilization of SOEs, Tantri Abeng, has been sniffing out the immoral behavior of GA officials since the mid 90's.

At that time, Tantri sensed that something was wrong with Garuda's operational cooperation scheme (KSO) with several business partners, which had a significant economic impact on the company's financial performance.

For decades until now, there have been several major cases that have dragged Garuda Indonesia officials into the legal loop. The following editorial summarizes some of the scandals that occurred at state-owned airlines.

1. Indra Setiawan

Indra Setiawan's name emerged when he was linked to the death of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib in 2004. At that time, Indra was the President Director of Garuda Indonesia. In the trial of Munir's murder, the panel of judges found Indra guilty for facilitating Pollycarpus to get on the same plane with the deceased.

Pollycarpus himself was identified as the perpetrator who mixed poison in Munir's drink aboard the Garuda flight to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This incident resulted in Indra being sentenced to one year in prison and Pollycarpus being sentenced to 14 years in prison. Not only that, but European aviation authorities have also imposed sanctions in the form of a ban on flying to the blue continent for Garuda Indonesia.

2. Emirsyah Satar

Emirsyah Satar was the President Director of Garuda who served from 2005 to 2014. He joined the company in 2003 as finance director after previously serving as president director at a private bank.

Emir, caught in a legal case when the KPK found his involvement in the procurement of Rolls-Royce aircraft engines that did not comply with the provisions. For this, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

When led by the Emir, Garuda had sponsored the famous English club Liverpool for several seasons. He is also said to have played a major role in lifting the ban on flying to Europe.

3. Ari Askhara

The last name may be slightly different. The president director of Garuda Indonesia for the period 2018 to 2019 was removed because he was caught smuggling a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on a plane that had just been ordered from France.

It was later discovered that Ari was suspected of carrying out several policies that were not in accordance with the prevailing standards at the company. First, he made changes to the 2018 financial statements to include profits from PT Mahata Aero Teknologi, which has debts to the company.

As a result, this window dressing managed to turn the company into a profit of US$ 809,000. In fact, in the 2017 period, Garuda recorded a net loss of 216,000 million US dollars.