President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has been urged to take firm and effective action to help settle the rivalry between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police.

The call was expressed on separate occasions this weekend, following the police'€™s attempt to engineer a legal case against KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto after the antigraft body named National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a suspect in a bribery case.

Academics from different universities in Yogyakarta gathered on Sunday at the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) campus and came up with a joint statement expressing their concern over the state of the nation.

'€œThe President can set up an independent team comprising community figures and academics capable of deciding whether Bambang Widjojanto is guilty,'€ UGM rector Dwikorita Karnawati said on Sunday, representing participating academics.

The participating academics came from Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University, Duta Wacana Christian University, Janabadra University and Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, among others.

Also in attendance at the gathering were lawyers, NGO activists and members of the public.

Dwikorita said the statement was made as a form of the academics'€™ moral and social responsibility to help settle problems faced by the country.

She said that in settling an important problem, the President had to listen to and take into consideration the voices of community leaders, academics, NGOs and religious leaders.

In their statement, the academics called for a stop to the politicization of law, as such an activity degraded the credibility of state institutions, which in turn would make people lose faith in the government and law apparatus.

Senior researcher Zainal Arifin Mochtar of UGM'€™s Corruption Studies Center (PUKAT) underlined the urgency of establishing an independent team to settle Bambang'€™s case.

He said the case could not be handled by the police because some of the police officers involved in the arrest of Bambang were also witnesses in the alleged corruption case involving National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, who has been investigated by the KPK.

'€œThe President now has to have the guts to issue a government regulation in lieu of law [Perppu] to protect corruption eradication officers as such a thing is not stipulated in the law on the KPK,'€ Zainal said.

The academics and lawyers also called on Bambang not to resign from the KPK despite his being named a suspect in a criminal case, as it would only show that the KPK had been defeated.

Senior lawyer Kamal Firdaus said that Bambang could not be criminalized because in the alleged case Bambang was working as a lawyer. According to the law, Kamal said, a lawyer had impunity rights and could not be criminalized.

The police arrested Bambang on Friday for allegedly encouraging perjury in a local election dispute in 2010. He was freed later in the day. Bambang was reported by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Sugianto Sabran, who is known as a timber kingpin in Kalimantan.

The police'€™s moves against the antigraft body do not stop at Bambang, as other KPK commissioners are reportedly set to face police investigations.

KPK deputy chairman Adnan Pandu Praja was reported on Saturday to the National Police by executives of a timber company. Adnan was accused of illegally taking over the shares of PT Desy Timber in 2006, while another commissioner, Zulkarnain, is accused by his opponents of tampering in a graft case while he served as East Java chief prosecutor in 2009.

Previously on Saturday, hundreds of university students, art practitioners, NGO activists and members of the public staged a rally in front of the Yogyakarta Police office, condemning what they called the arbitrary and unprofessional arrest of Bambang.

'€œWe are strongly protesting against the police'€™s inappropriate, overacted and unprofessional arrest,'€ senior activist Hasrul Halili of PUKAT said at the rally.

The protesters also handed over a letter containing their demands, addressed to the acting National Police chief or deputy chief.

'€œWe will monitor that the letter is really conveyed to the acting National Police chief or deputy chief,'€ Hasrul said.

• Academics call for end politicization of law as doing so degrades state institutions'€™ credibility
• They also called on KPK deputy chairman to not resign from role despite being named graft suspect

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