Jakarta – With only a week left, legislators deliberating the Corruption Court bill at the House of Representatives say they are determined to pass the bill into law before their term ends.
"I believe we can finish the deliberation process by the end of this month, because we only need to agree on the prosecution issue," a member of the working committee, Gayus Lumbuun from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Currently, prosecutors at the Corruption Court are district prosecutors appointed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The special prosecutors, combined with the court's current composition of three ad-hoc (appointed) judges and two career judges, has been proven to be effective.
Research by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) highlights that with the current ratio of career to ad-hoc judges, the Corruption Court has a 100 percent success rate of sending those involved in corruption to jail.
However, the idea of revoking the KPK's power to prosecute by returning it to the Attorney Generals' Office (AGO) emerged during a recent lobbying session between the House and the government.
ICW and anticorruption groups claim that both the House and the government intend to weaken the KPK by revoking its right to prosecute.
The committee chairman, Arbab Paproeka from the National Mandate Party (PAN) caucus, said Wednesday the public had misunderstood the idea behind the prosecution issue.
"We believe it is fine for the KPK to appoint district prosecutors, but it has to maintain good coordination with the AGO. Now, it seems the KPK walks on its own," he said.
Before the House entered its final recess period on Sept. 18, a committee member, Nasir Jamil from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said there were only three caucuses that insisted the KPK maintain its prosecution right.
They included the PKS, the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Star Reformation Party (PBR) caucuses. The Democratic Party was said to initially support the revoking of the KPK's authority, but in a final meeting before the recess, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the KPK's role was still necessary.
Nasir said that if nothing went wrong at the last minute, the bill could be endorsed and would maintain the original spirit of strengthening the fight against corruption by maintaining the KPK's right to prosecute.
"However, there is always a possibility of a sudden change. This is the House that we are talking about, in a political institution, anything can happen," he said.
"If we cannot pass the bill the deliberation will continue in the term of the next House. However, doing that is risky because the next House will only start to establish its committees in October, whereas the deadline for the bill is in December," he added.
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana from the PKB caucus said the committee planned to have its first meeting after the recess on Sept. 28, just two days before the House ended its term. "I hope that we can produce a law that is in line with the President's instruction," she said. (hdt)