T

he government and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) are still in dispute on the planned government regulation on lawful interception with the KPK concerned by the complex bureaucracy it would have to face prior to wiretapping.

"We have several objections to the idea. First, the obligation to get approval *from the district court* to wiretap, and secondly, the establishment of the interception body," KPK legal bureau head Khaidir Ramli said Thursday.

He said considering the complex bureaucracy here, it was not a good idea to oblige the KPK to get court approval, as "we have to be quick when we need to wiretap".

"If, for example, legal enforcers wanted to wiretap terrorists, it is possible bombs would have already exploded before the permission to wiretap was secured," he said.

"Plus, the more parties that know about a planned wiretap, the higher the risk of information leakage."

He said since the government had expressed its plan to issue the regulation on lawful interception, the KPK had not been involved in any of its drafting discussions.

"Only today were we invited, by a sudden phone call," Khaidir said.

However, when KPK representatives arrived at the place where they were told to have a discussion, they were told that it had already finished.

Separately, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) legal researcher Febri Diansyah said the regulation on lawful interception could threaten the KPK's graft eradication efforts.

"This is not the first time the government has tried to limit the KPK's authority," he said, adding similar efforts had been used in the discussion of the Corruption Court Law.

Wahyudi Djafar from the National Consortium for Legal Reform shared Febri's view, saying it was wrong for the government to establish a special body for interception.

Meanwhile, Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said draft regulations had already existed since May 2008.

"I was not the one who initiated the draft regulation but it was already there when I stepped in as minister," Tifatul told The Jakarta Post during a visit to the Post's office.

Tifatul said the Constitutional Court had ordered the deliberation of a law on lawful interception mechanism when reviewing the KPK Law in 2006.

"So far we only have a ministerial regulation on wiretapping mechanism issued in 2006. But this ministerial regulation is still not enough."

He added arbitrary wiretapping might violate the 1999 Law on Human Rights.

He said both the KPK Law and the Electronic Information and Transaction Law provided law enforcers with the authority to wiretap.

"Currently, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry is drafting the regulation on wiretapping mechanism," he said.

"We will submit the draft regulation for public scrutiny once it is ready."

Tifatul said there were four agencies with the authority to wiretap: the KPK, the National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

He said his office had conducted several comparative studies with countries like Australia, South Korea and Japan.