The Palace Denies SYL's Information About Jokowi Asking To Withdraw Ministry's Money Overcoming The Pandemic And El Nino

Special Staff to the President of the Republic of Indonesia for Legal Affairs, Dini Purwono. BETWEEN / Yashinta Difa Pramudyani

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the President of the Republic of Indonesia for Legal Affairs Dini Purwono denied the statement by former Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) that President Joko Widodo ordered the withdrawal of money from the ministry. "It is not true that there was a presidential instruction in a cabinet meeting for ministers/heads of institutions to withdraw money from subordinates or staff in dealing with the food crisis due to the pandemic and El Nino," said Dini via a short message, Antara, Thursday, June 13. He explained that every presidential instruction and the use of discretion by presidential assistants to overcome a problem must be interpreted and limited according to discretion procedures regulated in the Government Administration Law, which must not exceed the authority of the minister/head of the institution, and reported to the President as his superior. "Every withdrawal of money or illegal levies made by officials or state civil servants for personal gain is a criminal act of corruption that can be held criminally responsible," said Dini. Previously in the corruption case trial he underwent, SYL said that the policy he took while serving as Minister of Agriculture was a follow-up to the President's instructions, following warnings of the food crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the El Nino phenomenon. SYL argued that the money he used from extortion against echelon I of the Ministry of Agriculture was intended for the benefit of the Indonesian people who were threatened with not being able to meet their food needs. He also admitted that he was wronged by the testimony of his subordinates at the Ministry of Agriculture who were considered to have cornered him. The NasDem Party politician regretted the attitude of echelon I of the Ministry of Agriculture who did not ask him directly about levies or money sharing, and instead believed in the threat of dismissal if he did not collect the money in question. In this case, SYL was charged with extortion and received gratuities totaling Rp44.5 billion in cases of alleged corruption at the Ministry of Agriculture in the period 2020 to 2023. The extortion was carried out with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture for the period 2021-2023 Kasdi Subagyono and the Director of Agricultural Equipment and Machinery of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2023 Muhammad Hatta, who was also a defendant.

The two of them are coordinators of collecting money from echelon I officials and their staff, including to pay SYL's personal needs. For his actions, SYL was charged with violating Article 12 letter e and Article 12 letter b in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) of the 1st Criminal Code (KUHP) jo. Article 64 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.