Mochtar Mohamad (born 26 October 1964) is an Indonesian politician who was the Mayor of

Bekasi Bekasi (, ) is the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of West Java, Indonesia, located on the eastern border of Jakarta. It serves as a commuter town, commuter city within the Jakarta m ...

between 2008 and 2012, when he was convicted of corruption and bribery and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2015, and returned to politics.

Early life

Mochtar was born in

Gorontalo Gorontalo ( Gorontaloan: ''Hulontalo'') is a province of Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. Located on the Minahasa Peninsula, Gorontalo was formerly part of the province of North Sulawesi until its inauguration as a separate province on 5 De ...

on 26 October 1964 and was educated there, graduating from high school in 1987. He later earned a bachelor's degree in 2007. Mochtar is married to Sumiyati, and their eldest son Gilang Esa Mohamad was elected into Bekasi's DPRD in 2024.

Career

He joined Bekasi's city council in 1999, and he served there until 2003 when he became the deputy mayor under

Golkar The Party of Functional Groups (), often known by its abbreviation Golkar, is a Centre politics, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right big tent secular nationalist political parties in Indonesia, political party in Indonesia. Founded in ...

politician Akhmad Zurfaih. In the 2008 mayoral election, he ran as a mayoral candidate and won after securing 50.5 percent of the votes in a three-candidate race. He was sworn in on 10 March 2008. During his mayoralship, the city government issued incentive payments to neighborhood (i.e. ''

rukun tetangga A ''rukun tetangga'' (abbreviated RT, literally "pillar of neighbours") is an administrative division of a village in Indonesia, under a ''rukun warga''. The RT is the lowest administrative division of Indonesia, with over 1 million ''rukun tetan ...

'' and ''

rukun warga A ''rukun warga'' (abbreviated RW, literally "pillar of residents") is an administrative division of Indonesia under the village or ''kelurahan'' (or under: ''dusun'' or village). The formation of local communities is through consultation in th ...

'') chiefs in the city. In March 2009, Mochtar took on a personal loan of Rp 1 billion (around US$100,000), and then used parts of the city's budget to pay off the debt, totalling Rp 639 million being transferred to his personal account. Additionally, in December 2009, some Rp 4.3 billion from the city's budget was used to bribe some city council members into passing the city's 2010 budget. Another bribery case occurred in 2010, when financial auditors from the

Audit Board of Indonesia The Audit Board of Indonesia () is a high state body in Indonesia which is responsible for evaluation of management and accountability of state finances conducted by the central government, local governments, Bank Indonesia, state-owned enterpri ...

received money to give a positive assessment, and he later also bribed judges to win the award. The

Corruption Eradication Commission The Corruption Eradication Commission (), abbreviated as KPK, is an Indonesian government agency established to prevent and fight corruption in the country. History Background Anti-corruption efforts began in Indonesia in the 1950s. Followin ...

(KPK) formally accused Mochtar on corruption charges in November 2010, covering the misuse of funds, bribery of the city council and Adipura judges, with the auditor bribes still at that time under investigation. The Corruption Court in

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

released its verdict regarding Mochtar's case in 2011, declaring him innocent of all charges, which was the first time a KPK suspect was declared such. One of the judges in the ''ad hoc'' trial was later found by the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

to have been convicted of corruption in the past. Following an appeal to the Supreme Court, Mochtar was instead found guilty of corruption charges and was sentenced to six years in prison on 7 March 2012.

Post-jail

By June 2015, Mochtar had been released from imprisonment. He attempted to run against his former deputy Rahmat Effendi in the 2018 mayoral elections, but his party

PDI-P The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (, PDI-P) is a centre to centre-left secular-nationalist political party in Indonesia. Since 2014, it has been the ruling and largest party in the House of Representatives (DPR), having won 110 seats ...

decided against endorsing him. Instead, his wife Sumiyati Mochtar Mohamad ran as PDI-P's candidate. He declared that he will run in the 2024 mayoral election, but again failed to secure PDI-P's endorsement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mochtar Mohamad 1964 births 21st-century mayors of places in Indonesia Living people People from Gorontalo (province) Indonesian politicians convicted of corruption Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle politicians People from Bekasi Mayors of Bekasi