Strengthening (or Worrying) the KPK?

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) employees and anticorruption activists hold atheatrical performance symbolizing the KPK’s “death” at the KPK building, Jakarta, Tuesday (17/9/2019) evening. The event was held in response to the ratification of the new KPK Law by the House of Representatives in a plenary session.

The most appropriate phrase to describe the destructive power of corruption in this country is “corruption emergency”. This state of emergency is growing increasingly serious because the political elite do not sense the dangerous situation this nation is in. From plundering the country\'s wealth of natural resources to encroaching on national values, all actions are undertaken to build an empire of power.

Corruption is the most dangerous threat, because it can claim the soul and the life force of the nation and the state. Corruption has, through sophisticated means, poisoned the power holders like pouring honey, so that they forget themselves and bend their knees to the power that brings unlimited material pleasures.

The succeeding tragedy is that their conscience is dead. Extra effort and determination are needed to capture the perpetrators of these extraordinary crimes so as to prevent the further decomposition of political and state institutions.

The people have fought against corruption ever since the Reform succeeded in establishing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) under Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK. The KPK has extensive authority as a manifestation of the people\'s passion and enthusiasm for vanquishing the greed of state criminals.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

House of Representatives Legislation Body (Baleg) chairman Supratman Andi Agtas (left) shakes hands with House of Representatives (DPR) Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah during the handing over of a report on deliberations of amendments to Law No. 30/2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Tuesday (17/9/2019), during a House plenary meeting. The DPR and the government agreed during the meeting to approve the KPK bill.

The KPK has shown its superiority through its bravery and its successes in sending corrupt rulers and members of the political elite to prison. The KPK has succeeded in defeating those corruptors who have given in to their lust and primitive instincts by hoarding assets to become more powerful.

It is therefore easy to understand that the public strongly believes in and worships the KPK, and has even created a mythology that the institution was born from the womb of Reform, as "The Savior", or Ratu Adil (queen of justice). It is a mythology that believes in the arrival of a savior that will make society prosperous and just. People who were nearly driven to despair and desperation through their frustration with corruption feel that they were rescued by the KPK’s existence and actions.

This phenomenon is very human, but it must be watched so it does not become sanctified. Sanctifying an institution that is managed by human beings will make it vulnerable to the temptations of power, especially if political adventurers use this mythology as an ideological tool to gain power.

As such, the controversy over the revised KPK Law should not be life-or-death. There is no need for excessive demonstrations, nor should it give rise to rival camps that divide the people. The more important agenda is public literacy, especially among the younger generation, about the importance of controlling political and state institutions.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Activists and volunteers join the 602nd Kamisan protest in front of Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Thursday, (19/9/2019). Besides calling on the government to settle past cases of human rights abuse, they also criticized the government and the House of Representatives over the revision of the Corruption Eradication Law and called for the postponement of the planned revision of the Criminal Code, arguing that the bill contained several controversial stipulations that threaten the freedom of speech.

The essence of the amendments to the KPK Law is the urgency for supervising and holding to account the KPK, so that the institution remains powerful. Without effective control, it is feared that the KPK will become a "super-governmental body". In fact, any institution under the management of human beings in whom reside both noble intentions and seditious desires, needs supervising. Human beings will never be saints.

There is even a popular saying that it is better for demons to be in power than angels who rule without supervision. Therefore, whoever is in a position of power must be controlled by an equal power. This “brake pedal” is extremely valid because it is embedded in the power management system of a democratic government.

Public concerns over the politicization of the KPK mythology are very real for two reasons. First, democracy has busied itself with procedure rather than with managing public aspirations since Reform. The shallow grasp of the meaning of popular sovereignty parallels the storm of populism and the explosion of hoaxes, which are products of the post-truth concept that is sweeping the world.

Second, civil society’s clear role in managing the public’s sanity has diminished because equality has become absolute. Equality has been interpreted as unrestricted freedom, including in inciting public destruction of the pillars of the Constitution and the state ideology that resulted as an agreement between the nation’s founders.

Democracy, which is supposed to be an institution that regulates those who manage conflict, has instead become a generator of enmity.

The politicization of mythology is extremely dangerous, because its particular truth will be held as absolute. It will also destroy all rationale because politics becomes an arena of absolute and exclusive arguments, instead of a realm for mutually sharpening rationality and sensitivity for the public interest.

The declining quality of debates among the public and civil society has led to the rise of ochlocracy or mobocracy. This is symptoms of shifting civil society into "mob" (Jasmin Hasanovic, “Ochlocracy in the practices of civil society: a threat for democracy?”, 2015).

In essence, democratic practices have been limited to procedure that excludes discussing issues of public interest and will become trapped in an ochlocracy or mobocracy, a government that is managed and led by the masses who lack the competence to manage the complexities of state power. Democracy, which is supposed to be an institution that regulates those who manage conflict, has instead become a generator of enmity.

Therefore, the KPK can only become stronger precisely because it is held to clear account and is controlled proportionally.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

J. Kristiadi

J. Kristiadi, Senior Researcher, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)