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esponding to criticism that the new leadership of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has been slow in bringing changes to the antigraft body, the KPK'€™s new commissioners said they needed more time to settle into their new job.

KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo also said on Thursday that commissioners could not comment on ongoing investigations.

Agus said that he and four commissioners, Alexander Marwata, Basaria Panjaitan, Laode Muhammad Syarif and Saut Situmorang, had conducted a series of one-week briefings at the KPK in order to better understand the organization and to get up to speed on ongoing cases and how the antigraft body should deal with them.

Agus said that the new leaders would need another 10 days to sit down together and draw up their four-year strategic plans, which would lay out the future vision and mission of the antigraft body.

He added that each one of the new leaders had developed their own plans and recommendations to be presented in the meeting.

'€œAll of us have a different vision and mission for the KPK. We have to sit down and find common ground first,'€ Agus said, adding that the new commissioners would also ask for advice from the KPK'€™s high officials.

He said the strategic plan would detail which cases the KPK would prioritize for 2016.

Agus maintained that he would personally prefer a situation in which the KPK focused primarily on high-profile cases.

Late last year, the House of Representatives elected Agus, former manager of the National Procurement Agency (LKPP), Alexander, a former Jakarta Corruption Court ad hoc judge, Basaria, a police inspector general, Laode, a law professor at Makassar-based Hasanuddin University, and Saut, an expert at the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), as five new KPK commissioners.

Given the background of the new commissioners, antigraft watchdogs have predicted that the KPK will experience a kind of regression.

During their confirmation hearing, the five elected commissioners said that they would focus on the prevention of graft rather than aggressively prosecuting high-profile graft cases.

Agus said on Thursday that he would start working on programs for the coordination, supervision and monitoring divisions.

He said that currently, the KPK had shown too little concern for the coordination, supervision and monitoring divisions.

'€œThe three divisions are important because the KPK can'€™t work alone without coordination with other law enforcement bodies,'€ he said, referring to the National Police and Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO).

Agus further said that the new leaders would also start to reform the KPK'€™s internal management, including its human resources.

During their first week in office, the new leaders mostly engaged in ceremonial agendas. The leaders hosted a discussion with Culture and Education Minister Anies Baswedan and 500 headmasters on how to address cheating and improve integrity in education.

The five commissioners also participated in the inauguration of the KPK'€™s new headquarters with President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo on Tuesday, during which they were told by the President to resist political interference.

Agus further promised to boost Indonesia'€™s corruption perception index (CPI) level, which, he said, had indicated no progress in corruption eradication efforts.

'€œWe hope we can reach a higher CPI level in the near future,'€ Agus said, warning the public of Indonesia'€™s low 2015 CPI level. The CPI level currently stands at 34, only having climbed two points from the score registered in 2013 and still much lower than Malaysia'€™s 50.

Separately, Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) expressed doubts about the ability of the new commissioners to handle high-profile corruption cases due to their pledge to focus primarily on preventative measures.

ICW activist Emerson Yuntho said that the five new commissioners did not inspire confidence, because the House had only selected figures who they deemed to be supine and unwilling to rebel against the House'€™s planned revisions to the KPK law. (foy)