The government is likely to remove articles from a draft regulation on unlawful interception that could harm corruption eradication, Denny Indrayana, a legal adviser to the President said here Monday.
“We need interception [wiretapping] to be regulated, but the regulations must be inline with our corruption eradication agenda,” Denny told reporters after a seminar on corruption eradication.
He said the government did not want the regulation to hamper the fight against corruption.
“Interception is an effective tool in revealing corruption, but if it is used wrongfully it could be dangerous,” he said.
He added the government would continue receiving feedback from the public regarding the planned regulation.
“We have yet to decide whether the interception provisions will be issued in a government decree or in law.”
The government’s plan to issue a regulation on lawful interception has sparked controversy as the draft regulation seemed to complicate bureaucracy for legal institutions, especially the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK), to use wiretaps in their investigations.
The authority to use wiretaps was given to all legal institutions, including the KPK (regulated in the 2002 KPK Law), the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the National Police, regulated in the 1997 Narcotics and Psychotropic Law and the 2003 Terrorism Eradication Law.
While the police and the AGO need the court’s permission to use wiretaps, the KPK can directly bug suspects without a court order.
However, the draft now requires the KPK to gain permission from the Central Jakarta District Court before wiretapping public officials believed to be involved in corruption.
The draft regulation also mandates the establishment of a national center for interception that has the authority to supervise wiretapping procedures.
Many antigraft activists have expressed concern that such complex bureaucracy will make it difficult for the KPK to perform its job as information could be leaked during the process of acquiring such warrants.
The government insisted on regulating wiretapping after the Constitutional Court played a wiretapped recording between fugitive corruption suspect Anggoro Widjojo’s brother, Anggodo Widjojo, with several high-ranking law enforcers.
Danang Widoyoko from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said the plan to issue the regulation was part of efforts to weaken the national anticorruption body.
