Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
Peace for us all,
Your Honorable Court of Justice,
Dear Public Prosecutor,
The Legal Advisory Team and Distinguished Guests, especially the People of South Sulawesi, whom I love and miss very much.
First of all, let us express our gratitude to the presence of ALLAH SWT, for his mercy and blessings we have all been given the opportunity to meet in good health and well-being. 'Shalawat' and greetings to our great prophet, Prophet of Muhammad SAW.
With the permission of the Honorable Panel of Judges, I would like to begin my defense or plea by briefly telling me about my career so far.
Our family history is six siblings, I am the eldest child. My late father was a T.N.I. soldier and my late mother was a housewife. I have a wife and 3 children and have 4 grand children.
After completing my master's and doctoral education at Kyushu University Japan in 1993, I started to build a business with my colleague from Japan, we built Sumekawa Industries which is engaged in the export of tuna to Japan. Sumekawa Industries is the forerunner to my good relationship with Japan until now, then I continued to develop other businesses with Japanese investors, we built PT. Tokai Material Indonesia which is currently known as PT. Maruki International Indonesia which has branches in Bali, Xiamen and Shanghai.
The beginning of my call to serve in Bantaeng occurred in 2002 when a group of Bantaeng community leaders came to my house in the lecturer's residence, they asked me to go home from abroad and build our hometown.
But at that time I had committed to a Japanese partner, to focus on developing our company PT. Maruki International Indonesia, with a total of 2000 employees and standing on an area of 6.9 hectares consisting of 8 factories in the Makassar Industrial Estate.
But it didn't stop there, 5 years later a larger group of people using trucks and pete-pete from Bantaeng came to the factory with the same goal, asking me to go home and build our hometown. At that time my heart was moved to visit after decades of not going to Bantaeng, I finally took my wife and children to Bantaeng which they initially refused because they were afraid that I would enter politics.
May I briefly explain, Your Honor,
The condition of Bantaeng at that time was included in the list of 99 underdeveloped areas in Indonesia. The problem of poverty and the problem of annual flooding which is getting more and more miserable for the community. Moreover, 90% of people's income comes from agriculture, so that floods and droughts during the dry season result in many people failing to harvest. In 2008, the hajj quota for Bantaeng was mostly utilized by pilgrims from other districts due to the lack of pilgrims from Bantaeng.
But in the first 5 years of leadership, we solved all these problems. In 2010 (2 years of leadership), Bantaeng left the underdeveloped area to become a developing district, then for the annual flood problem, we built the Balangsikuyu checkdam to control water discharge when it rains and drain water during the dry season, so that the problem of crop failure due to flooding and drought can be minimized.
Then the district government came up with various agricultural innovations in collaboration with the university so that agricultural output increased and economic growth from 4.7% (2007) to 7.3% (2009). We reduced the poverty rate from 61% in 2007, to 4.3% in 2016. In 2013, the Bantaeng people had already fulfilled the hajj quota, even with a waiting period of 20 years.
Your Honor, the Court of Justice,
Dear Public Prosecutor,
Legal Advisory Team and distinguished guests,
I am not a political person, but from the beginning I have been committed to serving the community. All my abilities, my networking with Japan, I put all of them in order to be useful for the community. One of them, we received a grant of hundreds of firefighters and ambulances from Ehime Japan.
This is not only for Bantaeng, but I also distributed it to several provinces in Indonesia for free. The ambulances we receive are of international standard so they can be used for minor on-site operations. With a sufficient number of fleets, we built the Disaster Preparedness Brigade, it was enough to call 113, within 15 minutes the ambulance had arrived at the location with medical personnel.
This reduces the very high maternal and child mortality rate in Bantaeng to 0 cases. The good relationship with Japan continues to the provincial government level, we still receive ambulance and firefighter grants and we even signed a sister province MoU with Ehime province to increase human resources.
In 1 year of leadership in Bantaeng, we managed to receive the first Adipura and even managed to maintain it 7 times in a row and this has succeeded in changing people's behavior to keep their area clean.
After completing 2 terms in Bantaeng, I plan to rest and return to the business world. However, the call to become a regional head again came from people in various parts of the district so that I could serve a larger area, namely the province of South Sulawesi. The community hopes that the development innovations that I do can be evenly distributed in a number of other districts, not only in Bantaeng. The election contestation took place, I and Andi Sudirman Sulaiman were elected as Governor and Deputy Governor with a winning percentage of 44.41% and we are committed to donating ourselves to the community.
Since the beginning of our leadership, we have collaborated with the KPK and the Prosecutor's Office to organize the assets of the Provincial Government, Thank God, almost 10 trillion has been saved. Even at the Governor's office, we have prepared a special room for the KPK, making it easier for coordination and transparency. We also streamline activities and programs in the provincial government, from a total of 2000 programs and 8000 activities, we streamline them to 200 programs and 400 activities. We do this so that the programs that are realized are more targeted and the benefits can be felt by the community for the long term.
Throughout the year I regularly go around visiting the area, and this has become my habit since becoming the Regent.
For me, apart from coordinating with OPDs, hearing and seeing firsthand what the community needs are very important. From visit after visit, I then maximized our services by continuing to boost infrastructure development through the provision of Regional Financial Assistance. As for several areas whose infrastructure has been completed through this assistance, including road infrastructure in West Sinjai, which since Indonesia's independence has never felt paved roads can now be enjoyed by the public, then zero point pedestrians in Bira, Matallo Enrekang river platform, and many more.
Another development that has also been enjoyed by the community is the opening of access to an isolated area in Seko which is famous for its most expensive motorcycle taxis because it takes 3 days to cover 126 km. Being an isolated area makes Seko look as an area that has no potential.
In fact, Seko is actually an area that can become a food buffer area, not only in South Sulawesi, but also nationally. The Seko isolation route that we opened can be used functionally, and shortens travel time to the provinces of West Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi, which can become the golden triangle area in Sulawesi.
We are also working hard to meet the needs of the island community. Currently, Ready-to-drink Water or Arsinum is available on several islands, even we and PLN are preparing to meet the island's electricity needs through the installation of submarine cables to the islands of Lae Lae and Gusung.
In addition, we are trying to maximize Toraja as one of the world's tourist destinations by building Buntu Kunik airport.
This is one of our strategies to attract local and foreign tourists to visit, and the most important thing is to increase Toraja's competitiveness so that it becomes a magnet for investors to invest in developing tourism in Toraja. This will not only have an impact on Toraja and its people, but I hope that these good conditions can be transmitted to other districts.
Entering the beginning of the pandemic, we collaborated with hotels in Makassar as a place for self-isolation for the community, not only from Makassar City, but also from other districts.
We feel that the handling of this pandemic must use a persuasive approach to the community so that they can understand well how to handle and prevent the transmission of the Covid-19 virus. While thinking about handling the covid pandemic, especially for those who are infected, I also invite business people to participate hand in hand through this pandemic. Catering businesses were also organized to fulfill nutrition for the participants in self-isolation.
We call this program, "covid ambassador tourism", this program also helps to maximize the availability of treatment rooms in hospitals, so that patients who are comorbid and need medical treatment can be handled optimally and on target. One thing that I am grateful for from the hard work of me and the team is that apart from being able to reduce the death rate due to the pandemic in South Sulawesi, our program has also received WHO recognition and was adopted by the central government. I am aware that as a regional head and part of the regional government, our job is to serve and protect the community, so we embrace the community with other conveniences, one of which is by providing free antigen swab facilities to facilitate tracing.
Your Honor, the Court of Justice,
Dear Public Prosecutor,
Legal Advisory Team and distinguished guests,
I can say that I'm done with myself, what I built from the start with my company, is more than enough to enjoy old age with my wife. The children are already independent with their own efforts. What I am doing right now Lillahi Ta'ala is my service to the country and society. Even so, I actually got extraordinary experience when I was a regional head when I served for the country.
If in the past I was only involved in a company with thousands of employees, now I am involved for a larger number of people, with greater responsibility, and that is in my own homeland.
Building South Sulawesi certainly requires the synergy of people who have integrity, the same vision and a system that minimizes the potential for harm to various parties. I deeply regret what my subordinates, Sari Pudjiastuti and Eddy Rahmat did. I did not expect that my years of trust were abused by them. However, through this trial, all the testimonies of the witnesses opened my eyes that the system in the South Sulawesi provincial government still needs improvement.
Your Honor, Chair and Members of the Panel of Judges, Public Prosecutor, Legal Advisors and distinguished guests,
Islam teaches to give charity in secret so that the left hand does not know what the right hand is giving. However, since this is related to my defense, then I must explain. Helping in the construction of mosques was a habit of mine even before I became a regent. Before building a factory in KIMA, the first thing I built was a mosque for the community and employees. We even helped build the mosque around the factory in the cotton area. Even before I was elected regent of Bantaeng, the first thing I built in Bantaeng was a mosque.
I am a layman regarding the science of law. If building a mosque is wrong then I am ready to be punished. But if not, please don't stop my steps here to build South Sulawesi. Allow me to help more people in need. There are still many isolated areas that need road access, many of our people on the island have not been touched with clean water and electricity. Allow me to complete my promises to society, so that I don't have to worry about my accountability in the afterlife.
And we can pass on better development to future generations.
I still have many dreams and hopes for the development of South Sulawesi in the future. I hope that South Sulawesi, as the entrance to the Eastern Indonesia region, is seen as equal to a number of other provinces that are more advanced. One of my dreams is to hear the screams and applause of football fans again, accompanied by the sparkling lights of the magnificent building of our common stadium, the Mattoangin Stadium. I don't think it's an exaggeration if we appreciate the sportsmanship of the community, by building the Mattoangin Stadium to FIFA standards.
The stadium has now been handed over to the provincial government and has been razed to the ground without construction for a year. Let me finish the construction so that South Sulawesi will have a stadium that will become the pride of the people.
Your Honor, the Court of Justice,
Dear Public Prosecutor,
Legal Advisory Team and distinguished guests,
The prosecution of the Public Prosecutor with imprisonment for 6 years with additional criminal charges is very heavy for me, but I appreciate the entire legal process that I am currently undergoing, including the parties involved in it.
I also appreciate all the decisions that are the basis for starting and ending this legal process, as a test to shape me into a better person and Inshaa Allah, a better leader. Therefore, I ask Your Honor, the Panel of Judges as the last door to guard justice, please release me from all charges and demands of the Public Prosecutor. Allow me, again to carry out the community's mandate to continue the development of South Sulawesi.
Before I end this pleidoi, I would like to thank you for the prayers and support from the people of South Sulawesi for me and my family. The community's attention to us was so great, from the support through social media to holding joint dzikir, which really strengthened us through this ordeal. I hope it's not too much if I ask for prayer once again, so that we can again walk hand in hand together to build a better South Sulawesi.
Thus, we convey this pledooi, may Your Honor, the Panel of Judges who examine and hear this case, be given strength by Allah SWT and can grant our request.
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*) For further information please contact us:
Mahmud Kusuma Advocate
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Reference:
1. “Lengkap! Teks Pledoi Nurdin Abdullah Bikin Merinding: Izinkan Saya Kembali Lanjutkan Amanah Rakyat", www.makassar.tribunnews.com., Diakses pada tanggal 22 Januari 2022, https://makassar.tribunnews.com/2021/11/24/lengkap-teks-pledoi-nurdin-abdullah-bikin-merinding-izinkan-saya-kembali-lanjutkan-amanah-rakyat?page=2
