Jakarta – The House of Representatives has come under fire for "interfering" with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) by challenging the validity of the decisions it will make after the arrest of its chairman Antasari Azhar on murder charges.
A strong protest against the House was lodged by a Coalition of People to Safeguard the KPK, which groups several civil society organizations, including Transparency International Indonesia (TII), Yogyakarta's Indonesian Court Monitoring, the Padang Legal Aid Institute, and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
"We rejects any form of political intervention to weaken the KPK," ICW coordinator Danang Wido-yoko told a news conference Friday hosted by the coalition and attended by former KPK members, including Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean.
Danang suggested there certain motives on the part of legislators for their "aggressive" questioning of the validity of KPK decisions made in the absence of Antasari, who is under arrest for allegedly masterminding the March 14 murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen.
Tumpak pointed out any KPK decisions remained valid since they were made collectively by its four deputy chairmen, while encouraging the commission to press ahead with fighting major corruption.
A 10-hour hearing between the KPK deputies and the House's Commission III for legal affairs ended in deadlock Thursday over whether the national antigraft body still had legal standing to make decisions without its chairman.
Some legislators even told the KPK to postpone investigations and prosecutions of graft cases. They argued Article 21 of the 2002 law on the KPK stipulates the commission's leadership comprises one chairperson and four deputies, thus the antigraft body could not take decisions while its leadership was not complete.
United Development Party (PPP) legislator Lukman Hakim Syarifuddin claimed this was to avoid legal hassles in any KPK decision.
The move is seen as an attempt by the House to slow down the fight against corruption, since several of its members were sent to jail by the Corruption Court and many others are still on trial or under KPK investigation.
The House has also been accused of not being committed to the antigraft campaign, in the wake of its sluggish handling of the corruption court bill.
Earlier last week, Commission III held a meeting to discuss Antasari's arrest, and demanded that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono propose a replacement for the KPK chief for approval by the House.
Such maneuvers, Danang said, could be categorized as attempts to weaken the KPK. "Why don't they encourage the KPK to work as usual?" he said.
Denny Indrayana, the presidential adviser for legal affairs, said the problem of the vacancy in the KPK leadership could be settled internally by its four deputy chairmen.
"Because the KPK is an independent state commission and coincidentally no law regulates the case, it is better to refer to the KPK's internal mechanism, so it will remain independent to do its duties," he told Antara news agency.
In Semarang, the Committee to Investigate and Eradicate Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism in Central Java also slammed the House for allegedly trying to "politically intervene" in the KPK's national antigraft drive.
According to committee secretary Eko Haryanto, the House was afraid the KPK would continue targeting legislators in combating corruption.