President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has appointed a lawyer to deal with the barrage of headline-grabbing graft allegations leveled against members of his family and inner circle.



The lawyer, Palmer Situmorang, has been tasked with monitoring mainstream and social media to look at articles that are considered to contain false information about the President's family.



'I was appointed by the President when we met at the Bogor Palace in West Java on Dec. 9,' Palmer told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.



Palmer, who represented former PT Esa Kertas Nusantara (EKN) director Ali Alamsyah in the high-profile Bank Century bailout case and former prosecutor and graft convict Cirus Sinaga, said he would also clarify and explain matters related to the alleged roles of Yudhoyono and his family members in corruption cases.



Palmer said he did not know why Yudhoyono had chosen him. 'During the meeting in Bogor, the President expressed his concern over the number of reports containing false information about him and his family. I was asked to counter it by providing explanations. Such false information, if not corrected, would be read as true by the public.'



Palmer said his team would demand the retraction of 'false' statements about Yudhoyono or his family in the public arena within a certain period of time.



If the demand was not fulfilled, he said, 'We'd possibly go to the media's headquarters and ask them why they published such misleading information.'



The lawyer has sought at least one blogger for clarification within his first week of appointment. Palmer said he used specific software to monitor posts on the Internet.



Graft allegations against members of Yudhoyono's inner circle are intensifying as he approaches the end of his term. The allegations are mostly from witnesses and defendants in graft cases handled by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).



Recently, the Jakarta Corruption Court heard about the alleged role of Sylvia Sholeha or Ibu Pur ' said to be close to the First Lady ' in the Hambalang sports complex in West Java case. Previously, Non Saputri or Bunda Putri, also believed to be within Yudhoyono's inner circle, was implicated in the beef-import graft case. She also allegedly used her power to replace officials at the Agriculture Ministry she did not like.



During a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday, Wafid Muharram, a former secretary at the Youth and Sports Ministry, testified that Sylvia was instrumental in helping the ministry blow up Hambalang's budget from a meager Rp 150 billion (US$12.3 million) to a whopping Rp 2.5 trillion. 'Ibu Pur indeed stated her readiness to help [the ministry in the project],' he said.



Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party has lambasted several media outlets for publishing 'bias reports' about the party and the President, which they said had taken a toll on the party's electability. The party

declined to name names.



Palmer said the President wanted his legacy to be his achievements, not graft scandals. 'The President said he wanted to end his presidency with a 'soft landing',' Palmer said, refusing to disclose how much he would be paid by Yudhoyono.



'My fee would be a decent one. But I think the honor I get from being appointed by the President is priceless,' he said.



Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha did not respond to the Post's queries over whether Palmer's fee would be covered by Yudhoyono personally or the state budget.

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