(Bloomberg) — Indonesian Deputy Manpower Minister Immanuel Ebenezer has been named a suspect in an extortion case, the first sitting member of President Prabowo Subianto’s cabinet to be involved in an anti-corruption investigation.
Ebenezer allegedly participated in extorting parties seeking workplace safety certificates, charging them more than 20 times the supposed price, Setyo Budiyanto, chairperson of Indonesia’s anti-graft agency, said in a press conference on Friday. The agency known as KPK launched the investigation based on a public complaint.
The deputy minister allegedly got 3 billion rupiah ($183,000) in kickbacks in December 2024 for his involvement, Budiyanto said. He was caught, along with about a dozen others, in a sting operation that started on Wednesday night. Ebenezer will be detained for 20 days for further investigation.
The incident will be a test for Prabowo, who in his annual national address last week said he would not tolerate corruption, even among big-name politicians and allies. Ebenezer previously led a pro-Prabowo volunteer group and is now a member of the president’s Gerindra party.
Prabowo will respect the legal process, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi told reporters on Thursday, adding that Ebenezer will be dismissed immediately if found guilty of wrongdoing.
The issue quickly reverberated in Jakarta on Thursday when news broke about the sting operation. A lawmaker called the arrest an “own goal” for the government. On social media, Indonesians reposted controversial remarks Ebenezer made earlier this year telling those unhappy with the economy to “just leave the country.”
“This is a heavy blow for us,” Manpower Minister Yassierli said on Thursday.
D. Nicky Fahrizal, Jakarta-based researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, lauded the government’s efforts to clean up its ranks. “The law is being applied without exception, and that deserves credit,” he said.
However, investors will need to see structural reforms to be convinced that corruption can be rooted out of Southeast Asia’s largest economy. “If it’s only the top people punished without deeper reform, cases like this will keep happening,” he said.
(Updates with more details from briefing, context, and analyst comment)
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