Political Will is The Key

· 3 minutes read

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has the task of preventing criminal acts of corruption and monitoring the implementation of state governance.

The task of the KPK is contained in Article 6 of Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK. In addition to preventing and helping the government realize a governance that is free of corruption, collusion and nepotism, the KPK also works in the field of anti-corruption measures, starting from questioning witnesses and suspects and investigating cases, to coordinating corruption eradication with other law enforcement officers and also supervising corruption eradication efforts.

The KPK has become synonymous with prosecution. Moreover, the KPK often captures perpetrators of corruption. From 2004 to 2018, 998 people were arrested for corruption out of the 887 investigation cases handled by the KPK.
Data on the types of corruption handled by the KPK, including the distribution of regions and professions of perpetrators of corruption, are complete. However, reports on prevention activities carried out by the KPK have not been clearly seen, except to encourage state administrators to report assets and determine the status of gratuities.
Actually, Law No. 30/2002 clearly states that the KPK has the authority to organize anticorruption education programs. The KPK can carry out anti-corruption campaigns in the community, design and disseminate corruption eradication, and cooperate with various parties in combating corruption.
KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI
Workers polish the frontispiece of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on 20 June 2019.
The impression that the KPK emphasizes prosecution can be understood because so far, the majority of the commissioners of the anticorruption commission come from law enforcement, such as prosecutors, police and advocates. Not many of them are activists in corruption prevention.
Learning from the experience of a number of countries that are free from corruption, whose ranking is published every year by Transparency International (TI), prevention is prioritized to give birth to a generation that is not corrupt. In 2018, TI said 10 countries were relatively clean from corruption, namely Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Luxembourg. Indonesia was ranked 89th out of 180 countries surveyed.
Some of these countries have no anticorruption commission as strong as the KPK. Through educational institutions, anticorruption attitude is transmitted without having to declare it as anticorruption education. Anticorruption books are spread, the behavior of anticorruption state administrators is consistently shown so that generations with high integrity, especially in the public sector, can continue to be born.
KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI
An activist of the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Coalition holds up a placard to support the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) at a rally on 15 Jan. 2019 in the courtyard of KPK headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta.
The selection committee for candidates of KPK leaders realizes the importance of prevention to close the gap of corruption and save the country\'s finances (Kompas, 3/7/2019). The selection committee is looking for someone who has prevention-related skills. However, this effort will not produce optimal results without the political will of the government in a broad sense, namely the executive and legislature, to make it happen. The work of the selection committee will be reported to the President and will be chosen by the House of Representatives (DPR). Prevention of corruption must be encouraged.

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