REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Former Golkar Party chief Jusuf Kalla has suggested that Ratu Atut Chosiyah be temporarily suspended from the party chairmanship after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named her as a suspect in an alleged bribery case.

Under the Golkar rules, any party cadre involved in a criminal offense must be discharged, he said after the launch of novel "Athirah" here on Sunday.

Although the Banten governor had not been named as a defendant, she should be temporarily suspended as chief of the party's women's role affairs department and chief of the party's women's association to allow her to focus on her legal case, he said.

"She should be temporarily suspended from now on," he said.

Earlier, Chief of Golkar Party's Advisory Board Akbar Tanjung also suggested that Atut, who is now being held at the Pondok Bambu detention center in East Jakarta be temporarily suspended from the party chairmanship so that she could focus on her legal case.

"I have advised the Golkar Party executive board to suspend Atut so that she can focus on her case," he stated on the sidelines of the national working meeting of the Association of Indonesian Muslims Scholars (ICMI) here last Friday.

Akbar said the party respected the principles of presumption of innocence in the case involving Atut.

He said the naming of Atut as a suspect in the case would certainly affect the party's electability in the province and therefore, the party should soon conduct an internal consolidation by setting up a new leadership in the province.

"The Golkar Party should immediately implement changes in connection with the party's image before the community (because of the case) and I believe that it can do it," he remarked.

Atut was named as a suspect on December 17 in connection with her alleged involvement in a bribery case linked to the dispute over the results of the Lebak district head election and corruption charges related to the procurement of health equipment in her province.

She was linked in a bribery case that involved her brother, Tubagus Chaeri Wardana alias Wawan and former constitutional court chief justice Akil Mochtar. Wawan was earlier named as a suspect in the case.

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