T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has requested that specific articles connected to corruption and money laundering not be included in the final version of the amended Criminal Code (KUHP) bill.

Acting KPK chairman Taufiequrrachman Ruki said that as an alternative, the House of Representatives should work on the 1999 anticorruption law, which was amended in 2001, to cover specific corruption and money-laundering crimes and give specific rights to investigators from any law enforcement institution to handle such cases.

'€œAs one of the KPK leaders, I hope that [lawmakers] don'€™t include regulations on corruption in the KUHP amendment. [Corruption] is a special crime and needs its own law that also regulates procedures to prosecute the cases,'€ he said during a discussion on the KUHP draft bill.

The House has included the KUHP revision on its National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) priority list and plans to deliberate on more than 700 stipulations.

Ruki said that the goal to stamp out corruption would not be achieved if the KPK continued to be the only institution given special privileges in handling corruption cases.

He said that it would be more effective if the National Police and the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) were also given these privileges.

'€œRight now, if [law enforcement] wants to interrogate a state official, they need to ask permission from the President. However, the KPK does not need to do that. Why should the KPK be any different?'€ Ruki said.

He said that such a privilege should be distributed to other law enforcement agencies.

'€œThese privileges should be given so that the competition [between institutions] is more fair. Right now, there is no equality before the law.'€

Other KPK privileges include the ability to wiretap officials without needing to gain permission from the courts and the inability to drop a case once a suspect is named, which makes for a stronger case.

Meanwhile, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said that he did not take issue with the KPK'€™s privileges and declined to comment on whether or not a separate law should be established just for corruption case procedures.

However, Badrodin expressed his own concerns about the revision of the KUHP, particularly on the stipulations regulating crimes against religion.

Badrodin said that in a copy of the draft bill that he had obtained, Articles 348 through to 353 could be easily manipulated to discriminate against or even criminalize certain groups.

'€œThe articles discussing religion-related crimes could make way for criminalization. Although [the draft'€™s] intentions are good in that they seek to protect those who subscribe to state-recognized religions, those who don'€™t follow these [six] faiths remain unprotected. Actually, the draft even says in Article 358 that being an atheist or encouraging people not to follow a certain religion could be punished,'€ he said.

'€œThis is a clear violation of our Constitution which states that we all have freedom of religion,'€ he said.

Badrodin also said that several stipulations on hate speech could be abused to limit press freedom.

'€œIf a journalist reports on a case that has something to do with racial, religious or ethnic conflict then they could potentially be charged with these stipulations [in the draft bill] and it would discourage them from doing their jobs,'€ Badrodin said.