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oordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has insisted the House of Representatives'€™ plan to amend Law No. 20/2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will not weaken the authority of the antigraft body.

Amid mounting protests from a public that suspects the plan aims to weaken the KPK, House leaders held a meeting with Luhut to discuss the plan on Monday.

'€œThe President has said he wants no measures that will weaken the KPK. The President wants to maintain the KPK as a body able to conduct strong law enforcement in curbing corruption,'€ Luhut said on the sidelines of a different event at the Presidential Office.

According to Luhut, the House has no plan to limit the lifetime of the antigraft institution to 12 years.

'€œNo, there is no such plan [...] I don'€™t know if there will be in upcoming days,'€ Luhut said, adding that the revision focused on three new provisions.

The first is a plan to grant the KPK the power to halt an investigation into graft suspects by issuing a warrant known as an SP3, a provision criticized by the public and antigraft activists.

The two other provisions planned by the House, according to Luhut, aim to introduce a team to monitor the KPK and to ensure the KPK may only conduct wiretapping after obtaining permits from the monitoring team.

The House is also considering allowing the KPK to have independent investigators.

However, despite the meeting, Luhut said the government was still waiting for the official draft from the House before making any decision to reject or approve the plan.

The House has mulled a plan to limit the lifetime of the antigraft institution to 12 years, in addition to other provisions that would diminish the KPK'€™s power and autonomy, including one that would allow graft investigations to be halted, despite the fact that the KPK is prohibited by its own law from doing so in order to avoid trade-offs between commissioners and officials.

The House also aims to stop the KPK prosecuting cases involving less than Rp 50 billion, with the AGO or National Police instead taking over such cases.

The KPK has reacted with fury to the House'€™s plan, which was initiated by lawmakers from six factions: the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the United Development Party (PPP) and the Hanura Party.

According to Luhut, granting the KPK the power to stop investigations aimed to prevent abuses.

'€œSupreme Court chief justice [Hatta Ali] said that lacking that authority entailed a violation of human rights. Should we really allow cases against the dead or stroke sufferers to continue?'€ he asked.

Luhut also argued that monitoring the KPK was essential, as it remained the only unsupervised state body, while requiring the commission to obtain a permit before conducting wiretapping would similarly prevent violations.

'€œIt will not hamper [the KPK]. Wiretapping already requires certain procedures,'€ he said.

According to Luhut, the monitoring team would comprise prominent disinterested public figures or former officials selected by the government in a vetting process.

The coordinating minister revealed that the President might hold a consultation meeting with the House this week or next week.

Deputy House Legislation Body (Baleg) head Firman Soebagyo said separately that the plan to deliberate the bill had been postponed because the PDI-P, the plan'€™s main driving force, had yet to submit a final draft bill, Antara reported.

'€œAs yet, an improved [final] draft bill has not been submitted. We will discuss further once there have been improvements [to the plan],'€ Firman said as quoted by Antara.

Deputy House Speaker Agus Hermanto of the Democratic Party, meanwhile, said the KPK Law needed no amendments.

'€œThe Democratic Party faction believes that such amendments are unnecessary. Any amendment must aim to reinforce the KPK,'€ he said.
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