Who is Hasto Kristiyanto and why was Hasto detained by the Corruption Eradication Committee?

Hasto Kristiyanto is a politician from PDI Perjuangan. Currently, Hasto serves as the Secretary-General (Sekjen) of PDI-P. His political career began, among other roles, as the Deputy Secretary for Media and Outreach Division II of the PDI-P Central Executive Board (DPP) in 2002. Before joining PDI-P, this Doctor in Strategic and Global Studies from the University of Indonesia (UI) had a career at the state-owned enterprise PT Rekayasa Industri.

From the Kompas archive search, Hasto's name began to appear in the Kompas Daily in 2004. At that time, Hasto was Deputy Secretary of the PDI-P Central Election Winning Committee in the 2004 Election. He also ran as a member of the Indonesian House of Representatives in the 2004 Election. Supported by 29,850 votes, he was elected as a member of the DPR for the 2004–2009 period from the East Java VII electoral district covering the regencies of Ngawi, Magetan, Ponorogo, Pacitan, and Trenggalek.

The PDI-P faction assigned Hasto to Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), which oversees trade, industry, investment, and cooperatives. Hasto also serves as the spokesperson for the PDI-P faction in the DPR.

One of his groundbreaking moves at the time was initiating an interpellation right regarding a letter from the Vice Presidential Secretariat (Setwapres), which contained directives from the vice president to ministers to not place too much importance on working meetings with the House of Representatives (DPR), as they were deemed a waste of time and energy. The strong reaction from the DPR ultimately led to the resignation of the Vice Presidential Secretariat.

In the 2009 General Election, Hasto was part of the Campaign Team for Megawati Soekarnoputri – Prabowo Subianto in the presidential election. Hasto served as the Second Secretary of the Mega-Prabowo Campaign Team. Meanwhile, in PDI-P, Hasto worked as the Deputy Secretary-General (Wasekjen) for the Secretariat Division of the Central Executive Board (DPP) of PDI-P.

He was appointed as Deputy Secretary-General during the 3rd Congress of PDI-P held on April 6–9, 2010, in Bali. As the Deputy Secretary-General of the PDI-P Central Executive Board, Hasto Kristiyanto was recorded as accompanying Megawati at the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Cambodia in December 2010.

Next, during the 2014 Election, Hasto was appointed as the Spokesperson Coordinator for the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla Winning Team. After the 2014 Election, Hasto was appointed by President-elect Joko Widodo as the deputy of the Government Transition Team. This team is tasked with preparing the transition of government for 2014-2019.

On October 26, 2014, Hasto was trusted as the Acting Secretary General of PDI-P, replacing PDI-P Secretary General Tjahjo Kumolo who was appointed as Minister of Home Affairs. In a special interview with Kompas, PDI-P General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri said that Hasto was once touted as a minister. "However, I ordered him to remain on duty in the party," said Megawati (Kompas, 11/29/2014).

Some time later, the PDI-P IV Congress on 9–11 April 2015 in Bali appointed Hasto as PDI-P Secretary General for the 2015–2019 term. Furthermore, at the PDI-P V Congress on 8–11 August 2019 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Hasto was again trusted to hold the position of PDI-P Secretary General for the second time.

Since yesterday, Thursday (20/1/2025), the name Hasto Kristiyanto has become the attention of netizens. The attention of netizens is monitored through the Talkwalker application. Throughout the past week (14-20 February 2025), the number of uploads of content related to "Hasto" has reached 43,875 uploads. From these uploads, 259,829 netizen interactions have been generated.

The attention to Hasto's content was caused by the detention of the PDI-P Secretary General by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on February 20, 2025. This detention was related to the alleged bribery case and attempts to obstruct the legal process in the case of Harun Masiku, a KPK fugitive. In its statement, the KPK said that Hasto Kristiyanto would be detained for 20 days.

One of the accounts that uploaded the initial events of Hasto's detention was the X John Sitorus account. This content upload included the latest news information on the detention of PDI-P Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto by the KPK in connection with the Harun Masiku case.

It was stated that Hasto was detained even though there was no state loss, no evidence of corruption, and no money going into his personal pocket. The content uploaded on February 20, 2025 at 18:35 has generated 250,900 impressions from X social media users and 5,300 interactions from X users.

As stated by the Corruption Eradication Committee (KPK), Hasto Kristiyanto's alleged legal case began with the determination of Harun Masiku as a suspect by the KPK on January 9, 2020. Harun Masiku was a legislative candidate for the DPR from the PDI-P in the 2019 Election.

Harun was not elected as a member of the DPR after losing votes to other legislative candidates. However, because the winner of the most votes in the electoral district died, Harun allegedly bribed KPU commissioner Wahyu Setiawan to be appointed as a member of the DPR through an interim replacement (PAW) mechanism.

Almost five years later, Hasto was then named a suspect by the KPK on December 24, 2024. Hasto is suspected of giving bribes to Wahyu Setiawan together with Harun Masiku. Hasto was also named a suspect for obstruction of investigation in the same case. KPK investigators then decided to detain Hasto to facilitate the investigation and examination process.

When he was about to be taken to the prison car, Hasto stated that he had been cooperative in following the examination as a suspect. Hasto also asked that this case be a momentum for the KPK to enforce the law without exception. (Kompas, 21/2/2025).

Hasto's reaction turned out to be the most awaited by netizens. Of the five interactions that received the most attention, the content related to Hasto's reaction to his detention was the most followed by netizens.

The content that received the most attention from netizens was uploaded by the Twitter account Gelora News. This upload contains information "Held to the KPK Detention Center, Hasto Asks for Jokowi's Family to be Questioned". The content uploaded on February 20, 2025 at 19:32 received 605,800 impressions and 23,700 interactions from users of the X account.

Next, the second most-watched content was uploaded by account X @MurtadhaOne1 on February 20, 2025 at 22.11. This upload contains the content "By wearing an orange vest, Hasto hopes that his arrest will be a momentum for @KPK_RI to dare to investigate Jokowi's family". As of February 21, 2025 at 06.00, this content has received 752,900 impressions and 20,100 interactions from users of account X.

As Secretary General of the largest political party in Indonesia, Hasto's reaction to his arrest became a momentum that the public was waiting for. Likewise with the PDI-P's attitude. Responding to Hasto's arrest, PDI-P General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri then issued daily instructions. All party policies and instructions are directly under the control of PDI-P General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri

Megawati also instructed all regional heads and deputy regional heads from PDI-P to postpone their trips to the retreat in Magelang, on February 21-28, 2025. These regional heads were also instructed to remain in active communication.

The political impact of Hasto's detention has been given by PDI-P. Until February 21, 2025 at 13:00 the number of uploads related to Hasto continued to increase to 52,003 uploads and 323,803 engagements. Hasto's position as a party leader and PDI-P's initial reaction made this event have political implications full of surprises in the days to come. (LITBANG KOMPAS)