Seven candidates who underwent interview sessions in competition to be selected for the next batch of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners on Tuesday pledged that if they were to be elected, they would all carry out strict preventative and prosecutorial measures to eradicate graft.

Acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi, Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie, who was also a former judge on the Constitutional Court, and retired army general Hendardji Soepandji were among the seven candidates interviewed by the selection team on Tuesday.

'€œPrevention and prosecution must be carried out simultaneously. Preventative measures will be useless without prosecutions that will produce a deterrent effect,'€ Johan told the selection team during Tuesday'€™s interview session.

The selection team also scrutinized each of the candidates regarding their stance on a number of issues, including a plan from President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to give legal protections to public officials and local leaders when using their own discretion to decide policies.

'€œI don'€™t think it means that the policy should be criminalized. It is wrong if an official makes a policy that causes state losses and he receives kickbacks [or bribes],'€ Johan said.

Jimly, meanwhile, told the team that the country '€œneeds to give serious attention to the planning process for government policies as the absence of meticulous planning could lead to officials rigging government projects.

'€œThus far, when we talk about graft, we only focus on quality of spending. We need to focus on quality of planning as well,'€ he said.

Jimly, who once applied for the top KPK job in 2010, also said he opposed the death penalty for graft convicts, arguing that Indonesia was a nation that should uphold the right to life.

When asked about his ambitions if elected a KPK commissioner, Hendardji said that he would launch graft probes indiscriminately.

Hendardji said he would probe anybody involved in graft including active military officials.

'€œWe will [first] build up better coordination with the military to stamp out corruption [in the institution],'€ he said. '€œHowever, if they do not handle corruption seriously, we will take measures. We won'€™t favor anyone.'€

In addition to these seven candidates, the team interviewed seven others on Monday and is scheduled to quiz five more come Wednesday, including former Papua Police chief Yotje Mende.

A majority of the 14 candidates from Monday and Tuesday'€™s interview sessions failed to impress money laundering expert Yenti Garnasih in their knowledge of money laundering issues.

Arguing he was not a criminal law expert, Jimly did not elaborate on his answers, and said that it would depend on individual cases to determine whether or not to impose money laundering charges.

Yenti even criticized the KPK while she was raising questions to Johan.

'€œWhy has the KPK yet to charge someone who has had a passive role in money laundering?'€ Yenti asked Johan, referring to the wives or family members of money laundering suspects who had yet to be charged.

'€œRegarding those beneficiaries, What I understand is that we can proceed to name an individual a suspect only if there'€™s sufficient evidence in the money laundering allegation,'€ Johan replied.

Yenti told reporters after Tuesday'€™s interview sessions that some of the candidates with better no legal background should have prepared themselves better for the interview, particularly on money laundering issues.

'€œThis is a better selection process. They should have prepared [themselves] better and learned about the issues,'€ she said. '€œMoney laundering charges are key weapons to fight corruption, and at the same time, they are good tools to ensure better corruption prevention,'€ she said.

Lalola Easter from the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) who, along with a number of anticorruption activists from various groups, attended the interview sessions to monitor the process, renewed her group'€™s criticisms, claiming that the team had not yet been able to dig deeply enough into the background of the candidates, especially on matters of integrity.

'€œThey did not dig deeply enough into matters related to the integrity of the candidates, including their LHKPN [wealth reports of candidates who are currently public officials and former officials],'€ she said.

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