Febri Diansyah: There Is Always A Bribe Behind The Slogan Of Imports To Meet People's Needs

Former KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah (Photo: MAhesa ARK / VOI)

JAKARTA - The former spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) highlighted the government's plan to import food, including rice. Through his Twitter account @febridiansyah, he reminded that there have been many corruption cases that have occurred in the country related to import policies.

There are several examples of corruption cases related to imports that he touched on, such as corruption in imports of meat, fish, sugar, garlic, and textiles. From these various incidents, Febri said that there was always rent behind the slogan of imports to meet people's needs.

"In import corruption, there is always bribe behind importing slogans to meet people's needs", he wrote as quoted by VOI, Sunday, March 21.

He said the recipients of these rents or bribes were mostly officials with authority. "And even the leadership of political parties", he said.

This anti-corruption activist then touched on the corruption of bribery of imported garlic. He said that in this case it was revealed that there was a fee of IDR 50 to IDR 1,700 per kilogram of imported garlic.

For information, in this garlic import bribery case, PDI Perjuangan politician I Nyoman Dhamantra was sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of IDR 500 million, a subsidiary of 3 months in prison.

This verdict was handed down by the Panel of Judges at the Jakarta District Court who believe that this former member of the Indonesian Parliament received bribes to facilitate the processing of a Garlic Import Approval Letter (SPI) at the Ministry of Trade and Recommendations for Import of Horticultural Products (RIPH) at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Apart from corporal punishment, the panel of judges also sentenced I Nyoman not to be elected to public office for 4 years.

Meanwhile, I Nyoman's bribes, namely Elviyanto and Mirawati, were each sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of 500 million, a subsidiary of 3 months in prison.

Returning to Febri, he said that the previous corruption cases related to the import of goods should provide lessons. He also hopes that there will be no more corruption cases like this, especially those related to food and necessities.

"Hopefully it doesn't increase and these cases can become lessons learned before adopting an import policy", he concluded.