Rizky Amelia – A controversial proposed revision to the Criminal Code that bans wiretapping will not weaken or slow down the antigraft body's campaign to fight the rampant corruption blighting the country, a legislator has said.
Wiretapping has played an important role in helping the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to catch high-profile graft perpetrators. In the Criminal Code revision, however, drafters have proposed that the KPK be required to obtain a warrant before conducting a wiretap.
"We have started deliberating it. But it's clear that it will not weaken the KPK," Nudirman Munir, a member of the House of Representatives' Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, said on Tuesday.
Nudirman claimed that the revision would instead strengthen the KPK. He said it could still use a special law designed to get around the provision if it felt its authority was being undermined. "The KPK can use that, and we believe it can be carried out," Nudirman said.
The draft calls for all law enforcement institutions to comply, including KPK, with exceptions only applying in the case of an emergency. But even then, the KPK would still be required to report its plan to carry out a wiretap.
Andi Hamzah, who heads the team that drafted the Criminal Code bill, defended the team's idea to require a court warrant for wiretapping.
Andi said the KPK was not the only institution that had the authority to carry out wiretaps, pointing out that civil investigators employed by government institutions such as the tax office also had recourse to this investigative method.
Andi said that if wiretaps were at the heart of the KPK's investigation process, then a new regulation that gave exception to the KPK should be made for the body to continue exercising that method.
Indonesia Corruption Watch, a nongovernmental organization, says it has found at least nine articles in the draft that it says could hamper the KPK's antigraft fight.
Erwin Natosmal Oemar, a researcher with the Indonesian Legal Roundtable, agreed, accusing the legislators of working in the interests of graft perpetrators.
"As for the nine articles in the Criminal Code and the Criminal Code Procedures, they are obviously the work of the corruptors in the House who are fighting back and who are not happy with what the KPK has done. This is because the KPK has arrested many legislators from various political parties," Erwin said as quoted by Sindonews.
He said that if the draft was passed with the nine articles intact, it would mean victory for corruptors. "This will be noted as a tragedy in Indonesia's modern history if these articles are passed into law," he said.