KPK, Minister agree to fix wiretapping draft regulation

A meeting between the chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring ends Tuesday with both sides agreeing to keep cooperating in fixing a draft on wiretapping regulation.

Tifatul told a press conference a the KPK headquarters that the meeting was an initial step and that further talks were required to discuss the draft regulation.

“There were two matters discussed [in the meeting], court permission [for wiretapping] and [the establishment] of a national interception center,” he said.

Tifatul said that they were targeting to finish discussion and achieve agreement on April 2001.

Speaking on the same occasion, KPK deputy chairman Chandra Hamzah said he agreed with what the minister said, saying “there are many points that need to be deeply discussed.”

KPK Interim chairman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean said that he was hoping that the ministry would consider the anti-graft body's suggestions in drafting the regulation.

“From what we see now, there are still shortcomings. We will give suggestion so that the regulation [when approved] would be in line with what KPK want,” he said.

Constitutional Court justice Akil Mochtar warned earlier that the government would be breaching the 2002 Anticorruption Law if it pushes ahead with the contentious draft regulation that would strip the wiretapping authority from the KPK.

Akil said if the government insisted on enacting the draft regulation, it would not be able to breach the anticorruption law which was in higher position than any government regulation.

The draft regulation prepared by the government to enforce the 2008 Information and Electronics Transaction Law has raised controversy and sparked opposition from the public, including the KPK and anti-corruption watchdogs, since it requires the anti-graft body to gain permits from the Central Jakarta District Court before wiretapping public officials involved in corruption.

It also mandates the establishment of a national center for interception having authority in regulating the wiretapping procedure.

The draft regulation emerged only weeks after the Constitutional Court publicly played wiretapped conversations between corruption fugitive Anggoro Widjojo’s younger brother Anggodo Widjojo and several high-profile law enforcers, including former National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji and inactive deputy attorney general Abdul Hakim Ritonga, on Nov. 21, 2009, in connection with fabricated charges against KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra Hamzah.  

The recordings, gained by the KPK in investigating the Rp 6.76-trillion Bank Century bailout scandal, were deemed a slap in the faces of the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.