Two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairmen, who officially resumed Tuesday their positions, promised to continue the crusade against corruption.

Temporary deputies Waluyo and Mas Achmad Santosa handed over their positions to Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah after the antigraft body received a presidential decree ordering the reinstatement of the suspended deputies on Monday.

Bibit and Chandra were suspended for almost three months after being named suspects in alleged abuse of power, bribery and extortion against corruption suspect and fugitive, Anggoro Widjojo.

“The last three months [have been difficult] and I’m sure that without support from the public we would be facing a very different [future] today,” Chandra said.

He said the support would be used to continue the fight against corruption and expected the public would make this as a cultural movement.

Asked about what cases he would focus on after his reinstatement, Chandra said, “we will monitor the development of cases over the past two months. It is not a short period of time so there would be significant changes in those cases [handled before our suspension]”.

The most important thing is that, “we will close our ranks to fight against corruption together”.

Bibit on the other hand said he would focus to improve solidarity within the KPK.

“We need to develop strong solidarity so that if we hit a wall, we are not easily broken,” he said.
He added he and Chandra would evaluate cases handled by the KPK.

“The investigation processes in cases with solid evidence will be improved,” he said.

KPK interim chairman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean welcomed the two deputies saying they should ready themselves to face various challenges in the future.

“There are many people who are unhappy with our efforts against corruption, because those people enjoy the ways of the past and [resist] change,” he said.

He said he expected everyone at the antigraft commission to give their best and to work as a team.
Waluyo, in his farewell speech, implicitly laid expectations on Bibit and Chandra to address the Bank Century fiasco.

“Bibit and Chandra abbreviated is BC so I hope the next BC will be Bank Century,” he said.

He added the public had placed high expectations on the KPK to continue efforts to eradicate corruption and regretted, on the other hand, the amount of energy that had been wasted settling the conflict between legal institutions in the Bibit and Chandra case.

“It would be better if that energy was channelled into eradicating corruption,” he said.

Anggoro’s brother, Anggodo Widjojo, allegedly spearheaded efforts to bribe the two KPK leaders in an attempt to halt investigations against Anggoro’s firm PT Masaro Radiokom.

So far the KPK has questioned Ari Muladi and Edi Soemarsono, alleged broker and mediator in the bribery attempt. The KPK also plans to summon Anggodo.

Chandra said to avoid any conflict of interest he and Bibit would not be involved in investigations into Anggodo’s case.

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