Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A lawmaker warned the national antigraft body of the potential dangers of recruiting military personnel as investigators.
"The law has mandated that the Indonesian Military [TNI] should stay professional and focus on national defense tasks," Eva Kusuma Sundari from Commission III of the House of Representatives, overseeing legal affairs, said on Wednesday.
Eva was responding to a broadcast message circulating among journalists and politicians that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had recruited 20 members of the military as investigators to handle the Hambalang sport center graft case.
Eva said the TNI should be focusing on reforming its institution because defense reformation was still hampered by TNI's rejection of the inclusion of corruption as a special crime, which should been handled by KPK or the Supreme Audit Agency.
Therefore, she said, recruiting TNI members as KPK investigators would disturb two reformation agendas – eliminating the military double function in defense and politics, and corruption eradication.
"Such maneuvers and dragging TNI into politics will only bring democracy a few step backwards like it used to be during the New Order era where the TNI was manipulated and used as the means of power by the leaders," she said. Eva said the public trust for the TNI has never fully recovered because of its failed reformation.
KPK spokesman Johan Budi immediately denied the circulating report that the body has recruited members of the military as investigators for the Hambalang sport center graft case.
"It's not true that KPK has recruited investigators from TNI," Johan told Indonesian news portal Tribunnews.com. He said the KPK was only coordinating with the TNI for the detention of suspects and the conclusion of investigations.
Last year President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a new government regulation that would allow investigators on loan to the antigraft body from the National Police and the Attorney General's Office to stay on for as long as 10 years.
The regulation also forbids the police and the AGO from recalling these investigators while they are working on a case. The KPK relies heavily on investigators on loan, who can only stay on for a maximum of eight years.