Leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) fail to show up for a hearing with Commission III of the House of Representatives at the House complex in Jakarta on Wednesday (6/9). Based on the reply letter received by Commission III, the KPK leaders\' absence was due to the fact that the KPK leaders were out of the city.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The proposed recommendations by the House of Representatives’ inquiry committee on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) are getting out of hand, making evident the plan to eradicate the commission. In such a situation, commitment and concrete steps in reinforcing the KPK are urgently needed from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
The effort to eradicate the KPK can be clearly seen in the inquiry committee’s proposal to temporarily freeze and even dissolve the commission. This is a continuation of a previous effort to revoke some of the KPK’s authority.
The proposal to dissolve the KPK was delivered by inquiry committee member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction, Henry Yosodiningrat. According to Henry, the result of an inquiry committee investigation shows that there are numerous things to be improved at the KPK and such improvements would take a long time.
“So, if necessary, the KPK should cease to exist temporarily. Return [the corruption eradication authority] to the police and the Attorney General’s Office,” Henry said at the House in Senayan, Jakarta, on Friday (8/9/2017).
House deputy speaker Fahri Hamzah said that he supported the idea. He said that the KPK should not only be frozen but instead be entirely dissolved. According to him, President Jokowi must issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to dissolve the KPK as the commission has violated numerous laws and internal regulations while corruption levels remain high.
Other inquiry committee members have yet to agree to the proposal to freeze or dissolve the KPK. Henry’s proposal was rejected by committee deputy chair Masinton Pasaribu, also from the PDI-P. “The institution itself is not to blame. Its people are. What we want to address are the transgressions that the KPK people are committing,” Masinton said.
Inquiry committee deputy chair from the Nasdem Party faction, Taufiqulhadi, said that the plan to either freeze or dissolve the KPK was just a personal opinion of a committee member. The committee itself has yet to complete its final recommendations.
Despite the plan being merely a personal opinion from a lawmaker, KPK spokesperson Febri Diansyah said the public could assess through such opinions who supported corruption eradication efforts and who was against them.
As the freeze has yet to be an official, institutional stance, the KPK will continue to work as usual in line with Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK.
“We also believe that the President will continue to support corruption-eradication efforts as he has said multiple times,” Febri said, adding that, if the KPK was indeed frozen, corruption suspects would be the ones who gained the most as the KPK would not be able to work.
Commitment
Corruption eradication is among the nine priority programs, or the Nawacita, of the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla administration. This is shown in Nawacita’s fourth point, which states: Rejecting a weak state by conducting reforms in the law-enforcement system to create a corruption-free, dignified and trustworthy environment.
However, in relation to the House inquiry committee’s plans on the KPK and the KPK’s internal dynamics, the President said that he would not interfere as he respected the positions of both state bodies. “You must know that the inquiry committee is in the area of the House as the legislative body. It is their right. The KPK is an independent body. I do not want to interfere. People will complain if I intervene,” the President said (Kompas, 2/9).
Professor Emeritus at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Mochtar Pabottingi, said he was concerned at the President’s response to the House-KPK row. He said that he had yet to see any concrete steps by the President as a follow-up to his commitment to strengthening the KPK.
If the President really planned to strengthen the commission, Mochtar said, he should have established a joint fact-finding team on the acid attack on KPK senior investigator Novel Baswedan on April 11. As the President has yet to do this, the KPK has been subjected to inappropriate attacks from certain parties for months. If the joint team was formed and found the person who attacked Novel, it could launch an investigation to find out the brains behind the attack. “The KPK should not be attacked when the perpetrator of Novel’s acid attack is yet to be found,” he said.
Mochtar said that the House inquiry committee on the KPK had demonstrated to Indonesians deeply improper behavior.
Recommendation
The House inquiry committee into the KPK has almost finished its investigation and is compiling its recommendations. On September 28, the recommendations will be submitted to the House plenary meeting. If the forum accepts the proposal, it will be the inquiry committee’s final recommendation.
The House pledges to use its instruments to ensure that the government abides by the inquiry committee’s recommendations. Fahri Hamzah said that, if the House’s inquiry recommendations were not followed through by the government, the House could move to the next step of using its right of expression.
Article 177 of House Regulation No. 1/2014 on the House code of conduct stipulates that if a House plenary session determines that the implementation of a law or government policy related to strategic issues with wide societal impact violates the law, the House can use its right of expression.
However, there is a precedent for the President not implementing the recommendations of a House inquiry committee, namely that of the Pelindo II inquiry committee in late 2015. The recommendations were not implemented by the government as they were deemed to encroach on Presidential authority too much, namely in the recommendation to fire State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini M Soemarno.
