In his speech to commemorate International Anticorruption Day on Thursday, Jokowi said that methods to tackle corruption should continue to be improved, calling on law enforcement institutions to move away from high-profile arrests and sting operations, in favor of less-disruptive campaigns on corruption prevention measures.

“Corruption eradication [efforts] should address the root of the problem. [Graft] prevention is a more fundamental way [to address the issue],” said Jokowi on Thursday, adding that instilling nationwide antigraft culture would be essential in the fight against corruption in the country.

Implementing a good anticorruption system would go a long way to help the country raise its economic competitiveness, making Indonesia more attractive to investments, and in turn, creating more jobs, Jokowi added.

“Enforcement efforts are also important and must be carried out firmly and indiscriminately. Not only will this give a deterrent effect [for others], but it is also important to recover state losses,” said Jokowi.

The President also encouraged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to use money laundering charges in indicting graft suspects to maximize the recovery of state assets.

He said the government supported the passage of a draft bill on asset recovery, adding that he hoped the deliberation process of the bill would be finished by next year.

However, the bill was not included in the House of Representative’s National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) priority list for 2022, which was approved by House’s Legislation Body (Baleg) on Wednesday, but it was still listed in the long-term Prolegnas 2020-2024.

Echoing the President’s sentiments, KPK chairman Firli Bahuri said nurturing an anticorruption culture among the public, coupled with a renewed focus on graft prevention campaign, would be among the commission’s main priorities going forward.

Firli said the KPK had sent circulars to regional leaders, requesting them to formulate bylaws supporting anticorruption material to be included in schools and higher education institutions in their respective areas. As many as 353 governors, regents and mayors have issued their own regulations in response to the circular, Firli said.

“We want to build an anticorruption culture, which is the end goal for us,” Firli said on Thursday. “Enforcement [against graft] is necessary and we must commit to it and prevention [measures] are also important, [but] nurturing an anticorruption culture is very fundamental.”

He added that the commission’s focus derived from the fact that despite all of its efforts on prevention and enforcement, corruption still occurred and the agency continued to arrest graft suspects. Firli pointed out that the KPK had caught 1,291 graft suspects and in 2021 detained more than 100 people.

Separately, antigraft activists are saying that Indonesia’s antigraft campaign had withered, calling out Jokowi’s failure to effectively lead the country’s antigraft agenda.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Adnan Topan Husodo said Jokowi had failed to fulfill his presidential campaign promise of further strengthening the KPK and instead had overseen its downfall through a number of policies.

Such policies include the controversial revision of the KPK Law in 2019, which has new provisions that mandate the transition of independent KPK workers’ status into civil servants. The provision was used as a legal basis for the KPK to hold the controversial civics knowledge test, which resulted in the ousting of 56 of its workers, including top investigator Novel Baswedan, for their failure to pass the test.

Adnan said Jokowi’s failure to act on the Indonesian Ombudsman’s and the National Commission on Human Rights’ (Komnas HAM) investigation, which found that the test was marred with administrative flaws and rights violations, served as an example for the decline in the country’s antigraft agenda.

“It could be said that the President has failed [in his capacity] as the leader of the corruption eradication agenda,” Adnan said.