T

he naming on Tuesday by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) of North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho and his wife Evi Susanti as suspects in a bribery case involving two Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN Medan) judges is an indication that the fight against corruption continues, despite recent efforts aimed at taming the commission. The legal move by the KPK was taken after the lengthy interrogation of the two a day earlier that apparently led to strong indications that they were the alleged financial backers of the bribery scheme, in which prominent lawyer OC Kaligis has been implicated and named a suspect.

All the decisions to name the judges, Kaligis, Gatot and his wife suspects were made based on the availability of legal evidence as stipulated in the Criminal Law Procedures Code. Yet the implication of political figures '€” Gatot is a senior member of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Kaligis chaired the NasDem Party'€™s board of advisors before quitting from the second top post in the political party '€” cannot dismiss widespread speculation that the case is also political, apart from being a legal case.

And the fact that the case has been developing along with the country'€™s preparations to organize the first-ever simultaneous regional elections by year-end has created doubt about whether the regional elections can all be held at the same time. Such doubt is not trivial as a failure to hold the regional elections simultaneously this time could have an impact on the potential postponement of simultaneous presidential-regional elections in 2019 as stipulated in a Constitutional Court ruling.

The anticorruption commission is obviously racing against time and is burdened with building a case against the suspects and eventually proving their guilt in court. KPK statistics, which show it has a 100 percent success rate in convictions in cases that it has developed and taken to court, practically guarantee that the North Sumatra bribery case has strong legal foundations to proceed.

However, the lengthy legal process, from the lowest corruption court up to the Supreme Court, may effectively disrupt the regional elections in North Sumatra and lead to its postponement, subsequently disrupting the established agenda in 2019.

The North Sumatra case thus comes at the '€œwrong'€ time. However, neglecting the fact that corruption is an acute problem for the nation '€” that has been declared an extraordinary crime in the Corruption Law '€” would also be legally wrong.

Therefore, the investigation into the bribery case involving Gatot, the top lawyer and the judges should continue despite its political consequences for the macro national political agenda.

It is indeed a dilemma, particularly for the KPK, as the antigraft body could be considered an obstacle to the political process. Yet the fight against such extraordinary crimes must go on. Otherwise we could see many more democratic elections that produce corrupt leaders.