It's a Black Monday for Indonesia. Corruptors must be celebrating now that Judge Sarpin Rizaldi ruled that all the national antigraft agency's charges against Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan were unlawful.

While we are afraid that the ruling will force President Joko Widodo to inaugurate Budi as the National Police chief, the stakes are far higher for the country than a mere police chief job. The nation seems to have lost a decade of battles against graft.

Sarpin's decision is almost like a death penalty for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), because if Joko inaugurates Budi as police chief, we don't know what he is capable of doing. Even now, we see how the police have implicated all KPK leaders in criminal cases.

If the police really seek to name the four KPK leaders, whose terms end in October, as suspects and put them behind bars, then Joko will have to issue a decree to appoint new KPK commissioners until the House of Representatives picks new leaders.

We doubt these leaders can work independently – and considering what happened to the current commissioners – can freely pursue corruptors, especially among police officers.

The verdict also opens a hole for all graft suspects to file pretrial motions to courts, and win. After a decade of fighting corruption, Indonesia faces an uphill battle. We're back to square one now.

Corruption is the number-one enemy to progress as the nation's wealth goes to only a few people rather being used for the good of all Indonesians. The corruptors' victory means the people will suffer.

The public must continue to support the KPK in this lowest point while pushing for the Judicial Commission and Supreme Court to review Judge Sarpin's decision and the case itself. We have reason to believe that his verdict is seriously flawed.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/editorial-court-verdict-puts-us-back-square-one/