Hope on KPK looms large
Surprising developments on the first working day of the week have overturned the gloomy prospect of the anticorruption campaign in the past weeks into positive progress — despite still in a gloomy mood.
The arrival of reputable candidates, including lawyer Bambang Widjojanto and outgoing chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) Yunus Husein, to file their application with the selection committee for the leadership posts of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on the closing registration day on Monday has wiped out doubts over the future commission’s technical capacity and independency.
Although there will still be administrative screening by the committee, a “political nod” by the President on the eligible candidates and a so-called fit-and-proper test by the House of Representatives, the prominent candidates’ bid for the KPK leadership posts has blown fresh air into the country’s anticorruption campaign. Such high expectations are not without grounds while learning of the country’s poor track record in combating the crime.
High-profile cases, such as the Bank Century corruption scandal which has ended up nowhere but a stalemate, the prolonged prosecution of 25 active and former House politicians implicated in alleged bribery that marred the election of Bank Indonesia (BI) senior deputy governor Miranda Swaray Goeltom in 2004 and the latest graft cases implicating former Democratic Party treasurer and House legislator Muhammad Nazaruddin, have been considered a litmus test for the country’s, particularly the KPK’s, antigraft commitment.
It is therefore understandable if the general public puts much hope on figures such as Bambang and Yunus. Still, there is no guarantee that the Constitutional Court’s verdict that upheld the four-year term of Busyro Muqoddas as KPK chairman until 2014 on Monday will bring no consequences on both Bambang and Yunus candidacy. The Court’s ruling negated the decrees of the President and the House last year, which stipulated that Busyro, like his four deputies, would complete his term by the end of this year.
The Court’s decision will therefore set the term of a KPK chairman different from the other four KPK deputies as the ongoing selection process will therefore elect four deputies of the KPK chief and their terms will end in 2015. And it remains to be seen whether Bambang and Yunus would still be willing to run for the posts of KPK deputies. Such a precaution is not without precedent as a popular and favorite candidate for the post of KPK chairmanship last year withdrew from the race unless he was sure of his chance of securing the chief post at the anticorruption commission. The future anticorruption campaign is however under serious threat as a plan by the House to revise Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK is widely seen as the latest foray intended to weaken the anticorruption drive. Among the crucial amendments sought by the politicians are curbs on KPK authorities that they say overlap those of other state institutions, including the right to wiretap people and officials thought to be involved in corruption. Major graft cases have been unveiled after KPK investigators tapped the mobile phones of certain people.
The revision also focuses on the KPK’s zero tolerance on halting investigations, which has been key to the commission’s firmness in its battle against corruption. Other law enforcement institutions — the Attorney General’s Office and the National Police — have often dropped investigations due to lack of evidence, which in fact has given room for deals that helped breed corruption and transactional politics.
The selection of the KPK leadership is indeed important. But it is much less important than the commitment of all stakeholders of the nation to have the current KPK authorities maintained so as to ensure the war on corruption is won.
The arrival of reputable candidates, including lawyer Bambang Widjojanto and outgoing chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) Yunus Husein, to file their application with the selection committee for the leadership posts of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on the closing registration day on Monday has wiped out doubts over the future commission’s technical capacity and independency.
Although there will still be administrative screening by the committee, a “political nod” by the President on the eligible candidates and a so-called fit-and-proper test by the House of Representatives, the prominent candidates’ bid for the KPK leadership posts has blown fresh air into the country’s anticorruption campaign. Such high expectations are not without grounds while learning of the country’s poor track record in combating the crime.
High-profile cases, such as the Bank Century corruption scandal which has ended up nowhere but a stalemate, the prolonged prosecution of 25 active and former House politicians implicated in alleged bribery that marred the election of Bank Indonesia (BI) senior deputy governor Miranda Swaray Goeltom in 2004 and the latest graft cases implicating former Democratic Party treasurer and House legislator Muhammad Nazaruddin, have been considered a litmus test for the country’s, particularly the KPK’s, antigraft commitment.
It is therefore understandable if the general public puts much hope on figures such as Bambang and Yunus. Still, there is no guarantee that the Constitutional Court’s verdict that upheld the four-year term of Busyro Muqoddas as KPK chairman until 2014 on Monday will bring no consequences on both Bambang and Yunus candidacy. The Court’s ruling negated the decrees of the President and the House last year, which stipulated that Busyro, like his four deputies, would complete his term by the end of this year.
The Court’s decision will therefore set the term of a KPK chairman different from the other four KPK deputies as the ongoing selection process will therefore elect four deputies of the KPK chief and their terms will end in 2015. And it remains to be seen whether Bambang and Yunus would still be willing to run for the posts of KPK deputies. Such a precaution is not without precedent as a popular and favorite candidate for the post of KPK chairmanship last year withdrew from the race unless he was sure of his chance of securing the chief post at the anticorruption commission. The future anticorruption campaign is however under serious threat as a plan by the House to revise Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK is widely seen as the latest foray intended to weaken the anticorruption drive. Among the crucial amendments sought by the politicians are curbs on KPK authorities that they say overlap those of other state institutions, including the right to wiretap people and officials thought to be involved in corruption. Major graft cases have been unveiled after KPK investigators tapped the mobile phones of certain people.
The revision also focuses on the KPK’s zero tolerance on halting investigations, which has been key to the commission’s firmness in its battle against corruption. Other law enforcement institutions — the Attorney General’s Office and the National Police — have often dropped investigations due to lack of evidence, which in fact has given room for deals that helped breed corruption and transactional politics.
The selection of the KPK leadership is indeed important. But it is much less important than the commitment of all stakeholders of the nation to have the current KPK authorities maintained so as to ensure the war on corruption is won.
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