V

ice President Jusuf Kalla said that the country still needed the Corruption Eradication Commission to combat corruption.

He also said that Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) matron Megawati Soekarnoputri had never said that the KPK should be disbanded.

'€œWe still have many corruption cases despite the declining trend [of the number of cases],'€ said Kalla on Wednesday.

He said that he believed Megawati shares the same vision.

There has been controversy over Megawati'€™s remarks about the antigraft body.

In her speech on Tuesday, Megawati reminisced that it had been more than 10 years since she, then the country'€™s president, initiated the KPK. And she wondered when KPK, as an ad hoc body, would be disbanded.

She later said that KPK would exist as long as corruption exists. She later demanded government officials stop their corrupt practices, so that the country would no longer need the antigraft body.

The KPK was established in 2002, amid low public trust of the police and prosecutors, who rarely handled corruption cases. As an extraordinary law enforcement institution KPK has the authority to investigate, prosecute and convict corruption suspects.