Governor of Riau Declared a Suspect in Pekanbaru Corruption Case
Today, the governor of the Riau province (on Sumatra), Rusli Zainal, was officially declared a suspect by the Corruption Eradication Board (KPK). Zainal is accused of taking bribes from the management of state-controlled Adhi Karya, a construction company, in exchange for a contract to build facilities for last year's National Games in Pekanbaru, the capital city of Riau. The KPK stated that they found convincing evidence to underpin its allegation.
Zainal was also immediately dropped as chairman of Golkar's Central Board. Golkar, one of Indonesia largest political parties, is currently leading the popularity surveys regarding the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Lately, there has been a string of corruption cases in Indonesia that involve politicians from various political parties and business people. Indonesian politics and politicians have always been received with distrust by the majority of the Indonesian population. This recent flow of high-profile corruption cases that is dominating the front page of every newspaper and fills the content of every television news broadcast will only reinforce Indonesians' negative perception towards politics.