Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Agus Rahardjo (wearing cap) speaks with fellow KPK leaders (from left) Saut Situmorang and Laode M Syarif during a hearing with Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the legislative complex in Senayan, Jakarta, Tuesday (12/9).
Public attention has been focused recently on the House of Representatives in Senayan and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Kuningan.
On Monday, these two places should have become magnets for news. In line with the KPK’s schedule, House Speaker Setya Novanto was set to be questioned as a suspect at the KPK building.
Previously, Golkar Party secretary-general Idrus Marham said Novanto would be present at the KPK if he was not ill. Idrus\' guess was correct. Novanto was sick and absent. On Tuesday, a pretrial session filed by Novanto began to be tried at the South Jakarta District Court.
In line with the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), the pretrial judge will decide the case within a week. House Commission III held a hearing with the KPK from Monday to Tuesday. KPK leaders were present at the hearing. During the hearing, House Commission III seemed as though it was the House Inquiry Committee. This is because a number of members of the Inquiry Committee joined the meeting.
The KPK has refused to sit before the House Inquiry Committee because its constitutional legitimacy is still being questioned at the Constitutional Court.
We appreciated the KPK\'s decision to attend the hearing with House Commission III. Criticism disclosed by the House should have become input for evaluation and an internal revamp within the KPK.
In a separate meeting with Attorney General HM Prasetyo, it appeared that members of House Commission III and the Inquiry Committee filled with the parties supporting the government urged the Attorney General to reopen an investigation into the alleged involvement of investigator Novel Baswedan in a maltreatment case connected to a swallow bird nest thief in 2004. The Attorney General left open the possibility of opening Novel\'s case again.
The alleged involvement of Novel in the swallow bird nest case was dropped under the influence of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Now, members of the parties supporting the government have asked that the case be reopened and that Attorney General take it into consideration.
This condition raises the question: Is it true President Jokowi and his supporters are committed to strengthening the KPK, or are they just playing games in political image building?
The attempt to weaken the KPK is thought by the public to have appeared from members of parties that support the government, such as Henry Yosodiningrat who wants to freeze the KPK.
Meanwhile, President Jokowi is playing a game of rhetoric by saying: "I don\'t want the KPK to be weakened."
Amid tensions between the House and the KPK, the Constitutional Court can play a positive role.
The court can make a verdict on the validity of the Inquiry Committee before the deadline of the committee on September 28, 2017.
If the court wants to play the role of settling problems of constitutionality, this is the time for the court to act, even when all parties do not want to interfere.
