Nadiem Makarim jailed 10 years over Indonesia corruption

Nadiem Makarim, the former education minister of Indonesia and founder of the popular app Gojek, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on June 30. A court in Jakarta found him guilty of corruption connected to a programme that bought over one million laptops for schools during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nadiem denied the charges and said he was only trying to help students learn during a very difficult time. The verdict shocked many Indonesians who had once seen him as a new kind of leader for the country.

Nadiem was also ordered to pay a fine of 1 billion rupiah, which is about S$72,105. On top of that, he must pay back 809.6 billion rupiah — about S$58.7 million — to the government. If he fails to pay that back, he could face five more years in prison. The total punishment was much less than the 18-year sentence that prosecutors had originally asked for.

The chief judge, Purwanto, explained that the court found Nadiem guilty because he had abused his power as a minister. The judges said he purposely steered a government contract toward Chromebook laptops made by Google. They believed he did this to help strengthen Google's business relationship with Gojek, the company he founded. The judges called this a 'highly reprehensible motive' because it went against his duties as a minister.

Before becoming a minister, Nadiem had built Gojek into one of Indonesia's biggest companies. He started it as a courier and motorcycle taxi service, and it grew into a 'super app' offering food delivery and digital payments. By 2019, Gojek was worth about US$10 billion and was Indonesia's first unicorn start-up, meaning a private company valued at over one billion dollars. That success was what led former president Joko Widodo to invite Nadiem into his cabinet as education minister.

At the heart of the case was a plan to buy about 1.1 million Chromebook laptops for schools between 2020 and 2022. During the pandemic, millions of Indonesian students had to switch to online learning, and schools needed devices. Prosecutors said the procurement caused about 2.18 trillion rupiah in losses for the government. They also claimed Nadiem personally gained around 809 billion rupiah through a company connected to Gojek.

Nadiem and his legal team fought back against every charge. They argued that the laptop programme was carried out honestly and in good faith to keep education going during a crisis. They also pointed out that about 97 per cent of the laptops had actually been delivered to 77,000 schools by 2023. Google, whose laptops were at the centre of the case, has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The trial drew a huge amount of public attention across Indonesia. Dozens of Gojek drivers came to the courthouse to show their support for Nadiem. At one hearing, he arrived wearing a Gojek driver's jacket before changing into a formal batik shirt. Court sessions were livestreamed online, and some people even organised watch parties to follow the proceedings together.

Nadiem also used the trial to send a message to young people in Indonesia. In his final statement before the verdict, he asked whether professionals from outside politics would still be willing to serve the government after seeing what happened to him. He said to the judges: 'Youth across all of Indonesia, and the diaspora in every corner of the world, await your answer to the question echoing in their hearts: Is this country still safe for us to serve?' On the night before sentencing, he posted a message on LinkedIn saying he still believed in justice even after five months of trial.