Former Gojek boss Nadiem Makarim faces judgment in graft case in Jakarta

JAKARTA, June 30 — An Indonesian court is set to issue a verdict today in the corruption trial of former education minister Nadiem Makarim, a businessman who had left a multibillion-dollar startup to join government.

The case represents a remarkable turnaround for the Ivy League-educated co-founder of ride-hailing app Gojek, once seen as a poster boy for Indonesia’s tech startup scene.

Nadiem, 41, who became one of the country’s youngest cabinet members in 2019 and served as education minister until 2024, is accused of graft tied to the procurement of Chromebook laptops for schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prosecutors argue that the decision to purchase Chromebooks, which use Google’s operating system ChromeOS, was linked with the US tech giant’s investment in Gojek and had cost the state around US$120 million (RM480 million) in losses.

Nadiem, who denies any wrongdoing, claims the decision had in fact saved money. He has dismissed the charges against him as an “investigative error”.

“Experts and factual witnesses have stated: there was no element of state losses, no element of legal violation, no element of self-enrichment, enrichment of other people or corporations, and no mens rea or malicious intent,” Nadiem said in his defence plea this month.

Prosecutors have sought an 18-year sentence, also demanding that the court order Nadiem to pay a hefty fine of 5.6 trillion rupiah — upwards of US$300 million — more than double the estimated loss to state coffers from the Chromebook deal.

The hearing is set to begin at 10am (0300 GMT) in Jakarta.

Google was not charged in the case, and the company has denied any wrongdoing.

GoTo Group, created in 2021 after a merger of Gojek and e-commerce platform Tokopedia, said Nadiem had no decision-making role since his 2019 resignation.

Nadiem, whose lawyer father had served on the ethics committee of Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency, co-founded Gojek in 2010, starting out as a call centre with some 20 motorcycle drivers in Jakarta.

The name took inspiration from Jakarta’s ubiquitous motorbike taxis, known as “ojek”.

The company’s services have grown from ride-hailing to include food delivery and a digital wallet, with some 3.1 million registered drivers as of 2023.

Nadiem said he had accepted the offer from then-president Joko Widodo to serve as education minister in part to encourage Indonesian professionals to enter public service.

But he argued the case against him could cause an opposite effect.

“Young professionals fear that they will be the next victims,” he said.

As minister, Nadiem barred schools from forcing girls to wear Islamic headscarves and introduced a curriculum that emphasised greater flexibility in adjusting teaching methods. — AFP