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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is trying to restore public faith in his administration’s corruption fight by flatly rejecting a plan by one of his ministers to make it easier for graft convicts to get sentence remissions.

After a discussion with a number of prominent legal experts on Thursday, the President finally shed light on the fate of the plan, which antigraft activists say could undermine efforts to eradicate the country’s rampant corruption.

The plan, initiated by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, was included in the draft revision to the 2012 Government Regulation on remission. The draft regulation said that graft convicts could receive remissions without having to become justice collaborators and that the ministry could grant remissions to graft convicts without consultation with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The minister argued that such leeway for graft convicts was needed as correctional facilities across the country were overcrowded.

On Thursday, Jokowi told about 20 legal experts and human rights activists at the State Palace that he would reject the plan although he had yet to read the draft revision.

Last month, Yasonna said he had finalized the draft revision and sent it to the State Secretariat. However, the President has yet to receive the draft revision for him to give the final say, pending a review by State Secretary Pratikno.

“But, if it is there [...] I will return it [immediately], without doubt. I have yet to study [the draft revision] but, I will send it back. Period,” Jokowi told his guests, who greeted his comments with laughter.

The statement has raised the hopes of anticorruption activists, who have taken it as a sign that Yasonna will be forced to withdraw his planned revision, which was initiated last year.

Under current regulations, corruption convicts must have acted as justice collaborators if they want to get remission, in addition to having served one-third of their prison sentence with good behavior.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry is also required to consult with related institutions that investigated the cases, such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), to get their recommendation on whether the convicts should be granted remission. Another requirement requires corruption inmates to have already fully paid either fines or reimbursements as determined by a court.

“There is no longer a reason for his minister [Yasonna] to press ahead with the plan,” said constitutional law expert Refly Harun who was among Jokowi’s guests.

During the discussion, some of the guests urged Jokowi to punish graft convicts through forced labor on public works, which they believed would have an effective deterrent effect.

Other guests called on Jokowi not to allow amendments to the KPK Law as they feared the revisions would weaken the antigraft body.

“The input included, for instance, deploying [graft convicts] on social-related works like street care and sweeping the street every day,” another guest, former Constitutional Court justice, Harjono said.

Outside the Palace, anti-corruption campaigners also lauded Jokowi’s pledge, with Erwin Natosmal of the Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR) said “there is no need to cater to the hidden agenda of corrupt officials”.