Anita Rachman – Indonesia Corruption Watch has criticized the government for proposing a raft of changes that if implemented would seriously weaken anticorruption laws and further stall the county's fight against endemic graft.
ICW researcher Donal Fariz said there were serious concerns about major amendments to the Corruption Eradication Law proposed by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and changes to the Corruption Eradication Commission proposed by the House of Representatives (DPR).
The DPR, which must debate the proposals and amend the laws, has an adversarial relationship with the much more respected KPK, which has prosecuted and jailed a number of legislators.
Donal said there were nine key proposals that would significantly weaken corruption eradication efforts.
The proposed changes included dropping the death penalty for corruption, withdrawing a key article that defines corruption as losses to the state, erasing minimum jail terms for some offenses and reducing penalties for corrupt law enforcement officials who take or receive bribes.
Of more serious concern, ICW said proposed amendments included criminalizing the actions of whistle-blowers who report corruption and allowing a loophole so corruption involving Rp 25 million ($2,875) or under was not considered a crime.
"The revisions will only weaken the fight against corruption," Donal said. "We note that it is still important to include the death penalty because corruption is an extraordinary crime and must be handled extraordinarily," he said.
He said the sentences currently being handed out by the Anti-Corruption Court did not act as deterrents against further offending.
Donal also criticized the DPR and government for attempting to revise the law in the current climate of tensions with the KPK.
In an unprecedented move, the KPK recently charged 26 sitting and former lawmakers in relation to the Rp 24 billion bribery scandal linked to the appointment of a top central bank executive in 2004.
The House is also reviewing the KPK Law. Febri Diansyah, coordinator of legal and court monitoring at ICW, said KPK chairman Busyro Muqqodas had previously told the House that the law was "adequate" and did not need amending.
National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Tjatur Sapto Edy, deputy chairman of House Commission III for law and legislation, said the ICW need not worry about the revisions, claiming the House was still committed to eradicating commission with the KPK.
Tjatur said it was the House that established the KPK and asked what purpose weakening the antigraft agency would serve. The most important thing, he said, was not the laws themselves, but the people who worked at the KPK.
Tjatur questioned the track record of the agency, saying that it had only arrested the "small fish" and not the main actors behind the recent corruption scandals. He said if the KPK wanted to be given broader powers, it should prove that it could handle the responsibility.
"The KPK must prove itself in the upcoming months that it deserves the authority. Why don't they arrest corruptors that have caused the nation losses of Rp 1 trillion or Rp 2 trillion? They have been given a tank, so why do they shoot mosquitoes."