Amid a renewed push to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) after it named House speaker Setya Novanto a suspect in the high-profile e-KTP corruption scandal, Indonesia’s corrupt and lazy lawmakers are now accusing the anti-graft agency of only conducting sting operations (OTT) against low-ranking state officials.

While Indonesia’s politicians like to tout grandiose plans to make Indonesia food self-sufficient by 2045, a combination of soil degradation, the conversion of agricultural land for industrial and commercial use and poor advancement of farming methods and infrastructure has instead resulted in agriculture’s share of GDP falling to only 13.45% in 2016 from 22.09% in 1990.

Many believe that the Saracen news syndicate, which is under investigation for spreading slanderous and divisive news reports, is linked to the same political forces that brought down Jakarta governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Purnama on trumped up blasphemy charges.

With a politically charged House inquiry plus an acid attack on a KPK investigator times the obvious reluctance by police to investigate the case multiplied by the suspicious suicide of a key witness, the massive electronic ID card corruption scandal is starting to resemble a TV crime drama.

Indonesia’s opportunistic politicians have accused Malaysia of waging a ‘psy-war’ against Indonesia following a misprint in which the Indonesian flag was printed upside down in the promotional materials distributed at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games opening ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

Critics say that Indonesia’s politicians need to stop blaming democracy for rising religious intolerance and instead look at how government policies themselves have empowered and emboldened conservative and fundamentalist religious groups.

The House of Representatives’ budget committee is claiming ignorance over an alleged plan to increase the House’s budget allocation and use some of it to construct a new building.

Social observers say the political elite’s tendency to resort to verbal abuse (kekerasan verbal) and unsubstantiated accusations against political rivals reinforces social prejudices and leads to social friction and conflict.

According to a report by Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), sixty-one village heads across Indonesia were arrested in 62 different corruption cases in 2016.

In a much publicised meeting last week, Gerindra Party chairperson Prabowo Subianto (right) and Democratic Party chairperson Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left) met for informal discussions over a lunch of fried rice at Yudhoyono’s private residence.

The niceties observed during the Idul Fitri holiday season will be short lived with PDI-P politician Masinton Pasaribu (left) leading the charge for an inquiry into the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK, chaired by Agus Rahardjo right) and limiting the anti-graft body’s powers to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.

Many will be wanting front row seats in the long awaited bout between political heavyweight Setya Novanto and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) which on Monday finally declared the scandal-prone speaker of the House and Golkar Party chairperson a suspect.

In an attempt to reign in radical Islamists being mobilised against him by his political rivals, President Widodo issued Monday a government regulation in lieu of law allowing it to ban organisations that oppose the official state ideology.

With the House absorbed with its inquiry into the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) – a blatantly cynical attempt to stave off the KPK’s investigation into a massive e-ID corruption scandal involving lawmakers and senior politicians – crucial legislation such as the child protection bill are being put on the back burner.

The hard-line vigilante group the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) which been systematically hunting down and persecuting individuals who have posted comments on social media critical of fugitive FPI leader Habib Riziq Shihab, seem blind to the irony that he has been charged under the draconian anti-pornography law, which they themselves have long championed.

Attempts to counter rising religious intolerance and sectarianism with calls to renew the country’s faith in the state ideology of Pancasila is doomed to fail while the government itself tramples on key values enshrined in the ideology such as religious freedom, democracy and social justice for all.

The government has responded to the twin-suicide bomb attacks in Jakarta on Wednesday night not by looking at why intolerance and religious extremism is on the rise but by expediting the passage of secretive revisions to the anti-terrorism law.

While many may have been afraid to speak out against the politically motivated two-year sentence for blasphemy against Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama, they chose to express their support for the Jakarta governor by sending more than 5,000 flower arrangements to City Hall.

With the police are dragging their feet in an investigation into an acid attack on Corruption Investigation Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan, the House has now launched an inquiry into the KPK and initiated deliberations on amending the KPK law to limit the anti-graft body’s powers to investigate.

In the aftermath of last month’s Jakarta gubernatorial election, which saw hard-line Islamic groups being mobilised against incumbent governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama, many are concerned that the 2018 regional and 2019 presidential elections will see candidates again using the religious card against their rivals.