Activists say the three 2024 presidential candidates must offer concrete strategies to address Indonesia's flagging fight against corruption, democratic backsliding and unresolved past human right abuses in the first debate of the campaign season scheduled for Tuesday evening.

The televised debate, the first in a series of five before voting day in February, will cover issues of law, corruption, governance, democracy, human rights and tolerance.

Of these topics, concerns over the country's fight against corruption loom large, particularly after lawmakers and the government passed a revision to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law in 2019 that effectively defanged the agency.

Recently, then-KPK chief Firli Bahuri was named a suspect by the Jakarta Police for allegedly attempting to extort former agriculture minister and graft suspect Syahrul Yasin Limpo, dealing a major blow to public faith in the KPK.

In addition, six ministers and one deputy minister in President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s cabinet have been implicated in graft cases in his second and final term.

In the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Indonesia slid four points to a rating of 34 – marking an increase in perceived corruption – the biggest decline since before the fall of the New Order regime in 1998 and one of the worst year-on-year performances in the region.

“In the first debate, I’d say all candidates should offer clear commitments to strengthening the fight against corruption and restoring the KPK's independence, including by revoking the 2019 revision to the KPK Law,” activist Agus Sunaryanto of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

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