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Death knell sounds for antigraft body
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Researchers from various antigraft research centers and Corruption Eradication Committee (KPK) chairman Agus Rahardjo (center) hold up signs urging President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to stop the House of Representatives from revising the KPK Law. (The Jakarta Post/Bambang Muryanto)
T
he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has found itself looking into an abyss as a number of political decisions that activists and experts say will severely weaken the antigraft body seem set to sail through the House of Representatives.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has sent a presidential letter (Surpres) to the House that will kickstart deliberations on a problematic revision of the 2002 KPK Law, while the House will soon name five new KPK commissioners from a pool of 10 candidates, one of whom, South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Firli Bahuri, KPK leaders said might have committed "gross ethical violations".
The House and the government, which had previously balked at attempts to revise the KPK Law, were quick to follow up on Jokowi's political decision.
While the deliberations for the KPK bill are set to be officially announced in the House's plenary session on Friday, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly came to the House on Thursday night to begin the first deliberations of the bill.
When he arrived in Senayan, House Commission III overseeing legal affairs was grilling Firli, the only police officer on the list of nominees and thus seen as one of the strongest candidates to lead the KPK despite his questionable record.
"The public's hope that President Jokowi would reject problematic KPK leadership candidates and put a halt to the revision of the KPK Law has been dashed," Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) chairwoman Asfinawati said in a statement cosigned by 15 other legal aid institutions across the country.
"These actions are being done to weaken the KPK from the inside and will remove several of the KPK's important powers as an independent antigraft body."
