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House makes first move to emasculate KPK
Jakarta Post - June 18, 2015
The House's plan seeks to prohibit the KPK from conducting any surveillances or wiretapping activities during the preliminary phase of investigations, thus preventing sting operations aimed at catching individuals suspected of receiving bribes red-handed.
The administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has openly backed the House's initiative.
Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, a politician with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said on Wednesday that the wiretapping clause in the 2002 law could be modified to protect citizens from human rights violations resulting from surveillance operations.
"The bottom line is we need clear guidelines on wiretapping operations," Yasonna told reporters.
Senior KPK officials lambasted the plan. "The planned revision will all but cripple the KPK, including its authority to launch sting operations," said acting KPK commissioner Indriyanto Seno Adji, who is also a prominent legal expert, on Wednesday.
Under the House's plan, lawmakers are also expected to revoke the KPK's authority to prosecute by forcing it to hand over its investigation dossiers to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to bring any indictment to trial.
As stipulated in the existing KPK law, the antigraft body has integrated investigation and indictment powers with no obligation to involve the AGO in graft trials. Under the current system, where the KPK has its own prosecutors, the anti graft body has maintained a 100 percent conviction rate at the Jakarta Corruption Court.
"If the revision goes ahead with its plan to scrap the indictment and wiretapping authorities then the public can judge for themselves whether it is a systematic attempt to weaken the KPK. I am sure that President Jokowi will not violate his campaign pledges to strengthen the KPK," another KPK commissioner Johan Budi said.
Acting KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki, however, supported the House's planned revisions especially the initiative to form a supervisory council, adding that if approved the council should be given the authority to recommend KPK leaders drop a graft probe, something that is strictly prohibited by the current law.
"KPK leaders currently can't order an investigation to be stopped, but in an emergency case, for the sake of the law, such an option should be available but it must be approved by the council in the first place. Of course, it should come with specific requirements," said Ruki, who is a retired police general.
Secretary-general of Transparency International Indonesia Dadang Trisasongko slammed Ruki for supporting a plan that he claimed would reduce the KPK to an insignificant agency.
"If the House approves the bill then it will turn the KPK into an institution no different from any other existing law enforcement institution. If KPK leaders have the right to halt an investigation, we will likely see more abuses of power," Dadang said.
Despite mounting criticism, the House defended its plan saying it was well intended. "The planned amendment is nothing but a fairly normal procedure to modify legislation to correspond with changing realities and developments in the field," said House Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan of the National Mandate Party (PAN).
Meanwhile, Yasonna said the government would first wait for the House to complete its version of the draft amendment before deciding on whether to scrap controversial provisions.
"We will first wait for the draft," he told reporters at the State Palace, insisting that the plan was a House initiative and had been included in the 2015 House priority bills.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/18/house-makes-first-move-emasculate-kpk.html.
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