T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) confirmed on Friday that it had offered several key positions to high-ranking personnel from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Interim KPK chairman Taufiequrachman Ruki said he had told TNI chief commander Gen. Moeldoko that military personnel were welcome to apply for several high-ranking positions in the antigraft body.

'€œWell, if [military personnel] are competent then I don'€™t see any problems with the vacant positions being filled by soldiers. This way, the TNI can also join forces with the KPK,'€ he said.

Ruki said there were a number of vacant positions that needed to be filled immediately, including the agency'€™s director for investigation, the director for internal supervision and heads of the legal and the public relations division.

Also vacant is the position for prevention deputy, occupied until recently by Johan Budi, who is now one of the KPK'€™s interim KPK commissioners.

Ruki, a retired police general, added that the KPK had also offered the positions to candidates from some of the country'€™s top universities, other law enforcement agencies and ministries.

KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha maintained that there was nothing out of the ordinary with the KPK joining forces with the TNI as several retired military personnel were already working with the antigraft body.

'€œThere are several retired TNI personnel who are working as guards at the KPK'€™s detention centers. The head of security is also a military member who is in the process of resigning [from the TNI],'€ he said.

Priharsa said the KPK was chronically understaffed and it would need at least 1,000 new personnel. '€œThey could be hired to work from Sabang [Aceh] to Merauke [Papua] in prevention and supervision [divisions].'€

The KPK has long recruited most of its staff members, especially investigators and prosecutors from the National Police and the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) in line with the 2002 KPK Law. The law also stipulates that the investigators and prosecutors should be temporarily suspended from those two law enforcement institutions during their tenure at the KPK.

News of the KPK'€™s intentions to recruit members of the TNI, often considered a rival force to the National Police, broke as the two law enforcement agencies were engaged in a stand-off that many thought was far from over, especially following the arrest of top KPK investigator Novel Baswedan last Friday for his alleged involvement in the assault of a suspected criminal during his tenure at the Bengkulu Police in 2004.

The arrest was part of a string of events thought to have stemmed from the KPK'€™s decision to name Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, now the deputy police chief, a graft suspect only days before he underwent a confirmation hearing as police chief candidate at the House of Representatives.

In retaliation, the police named then KPK commissioners Abraham Samad and Bambang Widjojanto suspects in petty criminal cases.

TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya confirmed the KPK leaders had spoken to Moeldoko about the proposition during a recent informal meeting, but he rebuffed suggestions that the TNI was launching a war against the police force.

Fuad, however, said that TNI personnel could take up the offer based on their ranks.

'€œSome positions offered [at the KPK] may be equivalent to different ranks in the TNI. For the KPK deputy position, for example, we may appoint a three-star general, while a director position may be equal to a two-star job at the TNI,'€ Fuad said.

Fuad also said the TNI was ready to deploy personnel to serve as KPK investigators, although the antigraft body had yet to ask for that sort of assistance.

Fuad also said that any TNI members who would fill the posts at the KPK would quit their military service first.

'€œThey must undergo formal procedures to change their statuses from military members to civil servants. Or they can also file for early retirement,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, the National Police declined to comment on the KPK'€™s plan.

'€œWe are not in a position to comment on the issue,'€ police force spokesman Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto said.