A

s the House of Representatives (DPR) considers revising the Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) enabling legislation, one lawmaker is saying that the antigraft body should be stripped of its law-enforcement powers.

One senior lawmaker claimed that removing the KPK’s ability to investigation corruption allegations would help it focus on corruption prevention, which he said the KPK had failed to do.

“It’s an option to be included in the revision. We want to put a stipulation in the bill which would require the KPK to focus only on corruption prevention,” Benny Kabur Harman, chairman of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said on Wednesday.

The growing number of corruption cases was evidence that the commission had failed in its mission to prevent corruption, Benny added.

Under the existing law, the KPK is authorized to launch criminal investigations of corruption and prosecute alleged corruptors and is also tasked with preventing corruption.

Benny, who is backed by the Democratic Party, said that Commission III lawmakers would propose giving the KPK’s law enforcement powers to the National Police and the Attorney General Office (AGO) by revising the enabling legislation of those bodies as well.

“The KPK should not carry out investigations while at the same time preventing corruptions. We think it has too much authority. No state institution is allowed to have that much power,” he said.

Meanwhile, new KPK chairman Abraham Samad described the House’s proposed revisions of the KPK Law as unnecessary.

“The law we have now is not ideal, but I think it’s enough to give us the authority to fulfill our responsibility,” Abraham said on the sidelines of a meeting with the House’s monitoring team on the Bank Century bailout case on Wednesday.

Abraham declined to comment when asked if the revision was an attempt by lawmakers to protect their peers — and themselves — from investigation.

Separately, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Febri Diansyah criticized the plan, saying it indicated that the House was trying to stop the KPK from investigating corrupt House members.

“Several countries, such as Brunei, South Korea, Malaysia, Timor Leste and Thailand, have studied or even adopted parts of the [KPK Law] into their own laws. Many applaud the KPK’s performance. This shows that the KPK is doing its job,” he said.

Febri urged the House to drop its revisions, as they would bar the KPK from investigating graft scandals involving House members.

“The KPK has arrested around 49 legislators. I believe it will arrest more as investigations move on. Therefore, we must reject the revision plan,” Febri said.

The KPK was still greatly needed in the absence of public trust of law enforcement institutions such as the National Police and the AGO, he said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are planning to visit France, China and Australia, for fact-finding trips on corruption eradication in those nations.