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Police job offer marks new twist in KPK employment saga
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National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Choirul Anam (second left) talks to journalists in Jakarta on May 24, 2021 after receiving a report from senior Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan (left) and other employees pertaining to the civic knowledge test for the antigraft body employees. The KPK dismissed dozens of employees for failing the civic test, which is part of the mandatory transition to civil servant employment status. (Antara/M. Risyal Hidayat)
T
he dismissal of dozens of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) employees and investigators under the pretext of nationalism, which many see as the latest attempt to weaken the antigraft body, has faced a new twist: the police, known for its rivalry with the KPK, is opening its door for the ousted personnel.
Since its establishment in 2003 in the wake of the 1998 Reform Era, the KPK, which has spearheaded Indonesia's long battle against corruption, has seen conflict with the police that has occasionally erupted into dramatic confrontations attracting much public attention.
One of most notable conflicts is dubbed as the battle between "gecko and crocodile” -- a characterization that reflected the modest bureaucratic standing of the KPK when compared with the police’s immense manpower of hundreds of thousands of personnel and its billions in budget. It began with a dispute between the KPK and the police in 2009 when the antigraft body wiretapped former police detective chief Susno Duadji, and three years later when the KPK investigated former traffic police chief Djoko Susilo in a driving simulator procurement case.
Both disputes happened before the KPK was led by Firli Bahuri, a former South Sumatra police chief, who is believed by activists of trying to declaw the antigraft agency through its controversial civic knowledge test that led to the dismissal of 56 employees.
National Police Chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo said on Tuesday that the 56 KPK employees who failed the civics test, organized by the KPK between March and April, would be recruited as “civil servants in the police's anticorruption directorate”, but did not further specify the positions.
According to Listyo, the police had sent a letter requesting the transfer of employees to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who, according to the former, gave his nod to the request.
“We received a letter of response from the State Secretary [Pratikno] on Monday. Principally, he [the President] agreed with the 56 KPK employees becoming National Police’s civil servants,” Listyo said in a recorded press conference in Papua.
