HALMAHERA TIMUR – Executive Director of the Center of Energy and Resources Indonesia (CERI) Yusri Usman asked the Attorney General’s Office to charge Wilmar Group with corporate crime articles after Wilmar Group’s Head of Social Security Legal Muhammad Syafei (MSY) was named a suspect in a bribery case of a judge worth IDR 60 billion.
“We suspect that MSY has often carried out bribery practices to secure legal matters for the company where he works. One of them was revealed when I attended a Public Hearing (RDPU) at Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives regarding the issue of land grabbing by Wilmar’s subsidiary in West Kalimantan,” said Yusri, Monday (21/4/2025) in Wasile District, East Halmahera Regency, North Maluku.
Yusri said, during the RDPU, I Wayan Aditya, a retired TNI colonel who last served as a lecturer at Seko AD in Bandung, who is the attorney for the victim of the land grabbing, revealed before Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives that initially he was offered Rp15 billion by MSY to stop fighting for the rights of the victim of the land grabbing. The bribe offer was made by MSY in October 2023 at TIS Square Tebet, South Jakarta at around 17.00 WIB. At that time, MSY was accompanied by one of his staff. Wayan was also present with a friend who introduced him to MSY.
“Mr. Wayan refused it. Hearing the rejection, MSY increased the bribe offer to Rp20 billion. Hearing this, Mr. Wayan banged the table and flatly rejected MSY’s bribe offer,” said Yusri, recounting what Wayan said at the RDPU.
Not only that, Yusri continued, still in the struggle of the victims of land grabbing by Wilmar’s subsidiary which has been going on for approximately 23 years, an IT worker who was once assigned to the KPK who has expertise in tracking the accounts of officials abroad and likes to communicate with President Jokowi with the initials Mr. G who initially in 2016 helped the victims of land grabbing get their rights through his close relationship with President Jokowi, according to Wayan’s statement in the RDPU, is also strongly suspected of being bribed Rp. 17 billion by MSY. Mr. G reportedly disappeared after that and did not want to meet the families of the heirs of the victims of land grabbing after being arrested by Wayan at a cafe in Depok owned by Mr. G.
“We can imagine, for this one case of land grabbing alone, it has been going on for 23 years, the victims have complained everywhere, even to President Jokowi. But strangely, Wilmar has not budged and seems immune to the law. We are starting to suspect, could it be because of MSY’s cleverness?” said Yusri.
Therefore, Yusri continued, CERI asked the AGO to examine MSY’s role in all legal issues involving the Wilmar Group and its subsidiaries.
“Is it possible that this was MSY’s own initiative? If the bribe amount was one or two million, it might still make sense that it was MSY’s own idea. But if the bribe amount was tens of billions, is it not possible that it was indeed an order from the Wilmar Group corporation?” Yusri concluded. (*)
