Denies Jokowi Is On The List Of Corrupted Figures In 2024 Framing Is Evil, Observer: OCCRP's Reputation Is A Bet

The 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia Jokowi visited the 'Food Estate' land in Kapuas, Central Kalimantan, Thursday 9 July 2020. (ANTARA-Hafidz M A)

Political communication observer at Esa Unggul University, Jamiluddin Ritonga, considers it impossible for the Organization Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to accuse arbitrarily about the inclusion of the name of the 7th President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo as the nominee for the 2024 most corrupt figure.

"OCCRP certainly does not carelessly judge someone as the most corrupt. They certainly conduct an assessment based on rational criteria. Moreover, they are journalists and former journalists, of course they should use the standard of objectiveity in assessing. This has become the standard for a journalist at work," Jamiluddin told VOI, Thursday, January 2.

According to him, there is an in-depth technicality carried out by OCCRP which resulted in the release of the 2024 'Organized Crime and Corruption Tokoh' finalists containing Jokowi's names and four other figures.

With the release of the release, he continued, OCCRP certainly does not want the credibility of the organization to be tarnished because it is considered far-fetched.

"Therefore, it is unlikely that OCCRP will include Jokowi as the most corrupt figure with the aim of downgrading Jokowi's reputation. Because, if that is the purpose of OCCRP, the reputation of his institution will collapse," he continued.

Jamiluddin conveyed that the pros and cons of the response to the release of OCCRP were reasonable. However, in order to be clear, he considered that OCCRP needed to open methods and data that were used as the basis for Jokowi's name to be nominated for the 2024 corruption figure.

"That way, the OCCRP assessment of Jokowi is not interpreted in various versions. It is also not brought into the political realm, so the OCCRP assessment of the most corrupt figures is lost in substance," said Jamiluddin.

It is known, OCCRP released a list of world-corrupted figures to be awarded the 'Organized Crime and Corruption Tokoh' on Tuesday, December 31, 2024.

In the 'Corrupted Figures 2024' report, Jokowi's name is included in the finalists list with four other figures.

The four are Kenyan President William Ruto, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasin, and Indian businessman Gautam Adani.

"We ask for nominations from readers, journalists, personnel of the Year judges, and others on the global OCCRP network," OCRP wrote on its official website.

OCCRP is known to be a non-profit organization of a global investigative journalist network headquartered in Amsterdan, Netherlands.