Menkop Polhukam: Officials Named Suspects Should Resign

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD after attending the Dies Natalis and Graduation Program of Bung Karno University Bachelor and Master at JIExpo Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, Jakarta, Thursday (30/11/2023). (ANTARA/Rizka Khaerunnisa)

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD said public officials who stumbled on legal matters and had been named as suspects should resign from their positions.

"Public officials whose policies have received negative attention from the public must be willing to resign even though there has been no court decision," said Mahfud when delivering a scientific oration at the Dies Natalis event and the Bung Karno University Scholarship and Masters Program Graduation (UBK) at JIExpoKemayoran, Central Jakarta, Jakarta reported by ANTARA, Thursday, November 30.

Mahfud alluded to the number of people stumbling over legal cases, but did not feel that they violated the law. The officials who stumbled on the legal case were reluctant to resign from their positions and instead took refuge on the pretext of the presumption of innocence.

According to Mahfud, the reluctance to resign from public office is because officials do not understand ethics and morals. In fact, he added, the ethics of national life has been regulated in MPR Decree Number VI/MPR/2001.

"It's just that we want to obey ethics or not. However, sometimes people reason; this (the status) of the law is not yet clear, oh, I was engineered (the legal issue), and so on. It concerns other moral ethics, but the ethical rules are like that," explained Mahfud.

He also added that the values of Pancasila, both legal and non-law, must be followed properly by all Indonesian citizens (WNI).

If this happens, said Mahfud, then order and peace in the life of the nation will be felt.

When asked by reporters whether the statement was related to Deputy Minister of Law and Security (Wamenkumham) Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej and former chairman of the KPK Firli Bahuri, Mahfud emphasized that his statement was not an innuendo to certain parties.

He emphasized that the statement also applies to all public officials who have previously stumbled on legal cases.

"There is no satire. There are many (officials), not just (former) chairman of the KPK. It's been a lot all this time. Since the reform era, that's a lot of it. It's to officials, all of them, and to ASN all of them," said Mahfud.