O

n the back of a deal between President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and the House of Representatives to postpone the revision of the 2002 Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, political factions at the legislative body have made a proposal to have the planned amendments officially dropped from the House agenda.

Gerindra faction secretary Fary Djemi Francis said an internal faction meeting had decided to push for the removal of the draft revision of the law from the 2016 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) priority list.

The meeting also decided that Gerindra would continue to block any proposals to establish a supervisory body for the KPK; to diminish the antigraft body'€™s wiretapping authority; to give the commission the authority to terminate investigations; or to prohibit it from recruiting independent investigators.

'€œGerindra sees those four proposals as a plot to weaken the KPK. So we demand [the amendments] be removed from the Prolegnas,'€ Djemi said on the sidelines of the plenary meeting on Tuesday.

The Democratic Party faction also made a similar demand.

Deputy Speaker of the House Agus Hermanto, a politician from the Democratic Party, said his party would continue to reject any plan to amend the KPK Law.

Furthermore, Agus said, his faction declined to take the blame for the inclusion of the draft bill in the Prolegnas.

'€œThe House and the government are equally responsible for the Prolegnas and its annual priorities list,'€ Agus said after Tuesday'€™s plenary.

Meanwhile, United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker Arsul Sani said that political party factions at the House needed to convene a meeting at which all agreed to remove the amendments to the law.

Arsul, whose party would only endorse amendments that would strengthen the KPK, said that the current draft bill could not be used to predict the extent of possible damage to the antigraft body.

'€œIt'€™s not true that all the amendments are designed to the detriment of the KPK. Though you could argue that the current draft was drafted to weaken the KPK, it still is only a draft,'€ he said.

During a meeting with leaders of the House on Monday, Jokowi succeeded in convincing them to postpone the planned amendments, arguing that more time was needed to inform the public about the revision plans.

However, the State Palace declined to comment on Tuesday on whether the planned amendments would be dropped altogether from the Prolegnas. '€œThere was no discussion on the matter,'€ State Secretary Pratikno said.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung also declined to comment when asked if Jokowi had set a timeframe for when the government would recommence the discussion of the amendments.

Monday'€™s deal has cast doubt on a previous agreement between the House and the government to work on the much-awaited tax amnesty bill.

The government had initially struck a deal with the House to deliberate both pieces of legislation simultaneously, in which the legislative body would deliberate the antigraft bill while the state prepared the tax amnesty bill for endorsement by lawmakers.

Pramono said the government still wanted the House to deliberate the tax amnesty bill.

Last October, Jokowi and the House speakers agreed to postpone a similar plan to amend the law, electing to '€œfocus on mitigating the economic downturn'€.

The decision was also made after a closed-door consultation meeting held at the palace amid mounting public pressure to nix the revision.