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The end of the KPK?
Jakarta Post Editorial - June 22, 2015
After having its leaders and investigators criminalized for their past deeds, now the KPK is facing a big, final blow that may see it stripped of the powers that corrupt individual fear the most.
Politicians at the House of Representatives from both the ruling Great Indonesia Coalition and the opposition Red and White Coalition have put their differences aside to join forces in weakening the KPK through their planned revision of Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK.
Such attempts were not unheard of during the 10-year term of Jokowi's predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but they always failed hidden partly due to public opposition and, hence, the government's reluctance.
The current government, or more specifically Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, however, has not hid its support for the House's move. Yasonna claims the government couldn't reject the revision, which he said would provide clear guidelines on how the KPK would operate.
As in the previous efforts, the amendment will seek to restrict the KPK's wiretapping authority, which has been effective in catching fraudsters in the act. Most, if not all, of the arrests the KPK has made followed weeks or even months of surveillance that involved eavesdropping.
The politicians, however, want more. The revision is intended to deprive the KPK of its prosecution authority, which has enabled the commission to send all of its graft suspects to prison, including one who will spend the rest of his life behind bars. The conviction rate of graft cases the KPK has brought before the Jakarta Corruption Court stands at 100 percent, although on many occasions the court handed down sentences lower than those sought by KPK prosecutors.
If the revision goes unchallenged, which is very likely, the KPK will have to let the Attorney General's Office (AGO) arrange indictments, the same mechanism the National Police has to follow.
Without wiretapping and the ability to prosecute, the KPK will transform into an ordinary law enforcement agency, this despite the fact that the commission was initially set up more than 10 years ago because corruption was deemed an extraordinary crime that required extraordinary measures to eradicate. A disarmed KPK will lack the capability to carry on its war on corruption, which is far from over, let alone won.
But perhaps a KPK that cannot accomplish its mission is what the vengeful politicians eagerly seek, so that they can materialize their long-time dream of dissolving the antigraft body. Moreover, both the police and AGO are now flexing their muscles in combating graft.
The KPK has arrested dozens of lawmakers from various parties, but often party officials have openly vented their suspicion that the prosecutions were politically motivated.
The KPK must be suffering severe demoralization after a series of successful challenges by a number of graft suspects in court. Now the politicians are plotting an endgame that will harm the commission, as well as the future of our anticorruption drive.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/06/22/editorial-the-end-kpk.html.
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