P

K throws in the towel,'€ media outlets, including The Jakarta Post, blared on their front page on Tuesday in response to the end of the anticorruption body'€™s investigation into alleged bribery involving former police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan.

The cliché seemed the best available to illustrate the disheartening decision of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to transfer the high-profile case to the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO). It is possible the AGO may halt the investigation, as it has done repeatedly before, or, even worse, hand the case back to the police, who would certainly not let one of their own down.

When publicly admitting defeat, acting KPK chief Taufiequrachman Ruki said the Commission could not become obsessed by the Budi case, particularly after the South Jakarta District Court invalidated the KPK'€™s move to name Budi a suspect. On the one hand, Ruki has hurt those who have constantly supported the KPK-led war on graft, but on the other, his move can be seen as the pragmatic option given the dearth of political support for the commission.

We can only imagine the pressure on Ruki, who was the first KPK chief in 2003-2007, as he negotiated with government representatives Attorney General M. Prasetyo, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno and acting National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti in a closed-door meeting on Monday.

Call it pragmatism or compromise, the KPK'€™s move is bad news for the country'€™s fight against entrenched corruption. However, as evident in the mass rally organized by KPK employees to protest their leaders'€™ move to give up on the Budi case on Tuesday, we could be missing the silver lining.

It was at first confusing that Ruki joined the demonstration against himself. Only when public officials, including Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi, began to lash out and threatened to punish the KPK employees could we understand that Ruki was protecting his staff in the same way as when he ordered KPK investigator Novel Baswedan to skip police questioning in connection with an outdated assault case.

There is no doubt that the KPK is on the ropes after months of constant attacks, ranging from criminal charges pressed on then KPK chief Abraham Samad and deputy chief Bambang Widjojanto to threats against staff and their families. But we can rest assured that the KPK is not out yet.

Despite the attempts to demoralize it, the Commission has kept its powers and human resources intact, enabling it to resume investigations into hundreds of graft cases on its list. The public will be particularly eager to see whether the KPK accelerates its probes into high-profile cases before the suspects challenge their prosecution in court, following in the footsteps of Budi.

The Criminal Law Procedures Code does not allow suspects to file pretrial motions if investigators have completed their indictment.

We hope the KPK quickly gets back on its feet and continues the hunt for the corrupt.