Johanis Tanak Responds To The Issue Of Calling The Acting Director General Of Mineral And Coal: Stupid If I Play A Fire At The KPK

Deputy Chairperson Of The KPK Johanis Tanak (center) at a press conference / DOK PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Johanis Tanak denied that he was 'playing' with the Acting Director General of Mineral and Coal of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Idris Froyoto Sihite. He emphasized that he never talked about handling cases of alleged corruption.

This was conveyed by Johanis in response to his short message to Idris circulating on social media. He said the chat occurred before he became deputy chairman of the anti-corruption commission or to be precise in 2022.

"I contacted him (at the time, ed) I was not at the KPK. Not at the KPK. That's 2022," Johanis told VOI by telephone, Wednesday, April 12 evening.

Johanis agrees that there is a statement looking for money behind the scenes as in the short message. However, the context of the conversation is because he will retire from his position at the Prosecutor's Office, so Johanis needs a new activity.

At that time, he also did not know that he would be elected to replace Lili Pintauli Siregar as Deputy Chair of the KPK. "If I continue to retire, what should I do, so I'm looking for how there will be new activities," he explained.

"There are friends who invite us, tell us. So I said, I'm just behind the scenes because while I'm still active at the prosecutor's office. Later when I retire, it's only a matter of months left, I'm just active. So I'm not playing behind the scenes at the KPK, no," continued Johanis.

Johanis stated that he never thought about playing a case at the KPK. "If you are here, where do you dare. It's too stupid for me to play with fire like that," he said.

Johanis stated that he had never been in touch with Idris. In fact, he just found out that the person he contacted was the Acting Director General of Mineral and Coal because previously he served as Head of the Legal Bureau at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

"I knew during the exposure (alleged corruption in performance allowances at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, ed). So when the investigation was the director-general, I didn't know. There was an exposure, I just found out, it turned out that this was Idris who was Karo's Legal Bureau," he said.

"Just that I know. Frankly," added Johanis.

For information, Johanis Tanak's name was in the spotlight after the Twitter account @dimdim0783 uploaded a short message he sent. There are several screenshots, one of which is discussing work and there are sentences 'behind the screen'.

The message was sent by Johanis on October 19, 2022. Meanwhile, Johanis was appointed Deputy Chairperson of the KPK replacing Lili who resigned on October 28, 2022.