If criticism is analogous to nutrient food that helps democracy mature and grow stronger, the persistent demands from Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Fahri Hamzah for the dissolution of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) without much challenge from either the Muslim-based party or the House of Representatives, is not the case.

Fahri, and perhaps many other House politicians, insists that the KPK has derailed the anticorruption drive rather than accelerated it, as evinced in its "selective slash and burn", emerging instead as a "superbody" with inadequate oversight.

The fact that leaders of the PKS, in particular, and the House, in general, do not consider such a provoking statement detrimental to the ongoing fight against entrenched corruption in the country, one may be tempted to suspect such a systemic move to remove the KPK is real. Worse, the political elites' resentment toward the KPK, which has become more blatant, casts a shadow over the prospect of success with the anticorruption drive.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie had previously suggested that the KPK be liquidated, provided that the government failed to select competent figures to lead the commission, whose inception in 2003 marked a start to the country's war on corruption.

Earlier this year, the House proposed a revision of the KPK law that intended to reduce the commission to ordinary law enforcement agencies by allowing it to halt an investigation. Under the existing law, a KPK investigation amounts to a point of no return, forcing it to focus on cases with solid preliminary evidence. No wonder if all the corrupt suspects the KPK has brought to court, including politicians, were punished.

The KPK's uncompromising policy prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono two years ago to reveal his concern that the commission might become a superbody.

The latest turmoil pitting the antigraft body and the politicians against each other comes hot on the heels of its move to question leaders of the House's budget committee in connection with alleged mafia practice in the committee's endorsement of Rp 500 billion (US$56 million) from state budget funds for the Regional Infrastructure Development Acceleration (PPID) program. The committee suspended last week its deliberations of the 2012 draft budget in a show of protest against the probe.

Like it or not, Fahri's anger with the KPK has something to do with the questioning of budget committee deputy chief and PKS fellow politician Tamsil Linrung in connection with the PPID scandal, which also implicates Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar. Most recently, the KPK grilled Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo on Tuesday in relation to the scandal.

With the KPK having named no new suspects except for businesswoman Dharnawati and Muhaimin's staffers, I Nyoman Suisnaya and Dadong Irbarelawan, Fahri's attack on the KPK and the House's silent support for him could send the wrong message that the politicians are throwing a death threat to the antigraft commission.

Tamsil's implication, let alone his prosecution, would deal a serious blow to the PKS, as the party has characterized itself as a clean political grouping and a champion of morality. This image has to some extent been eroded after a number of its members were named graft suspects and convicted, not to mention the party's inaction toward one of its politicians, Adang Daradjatun, who has refused to cooperate with the KPK in persuading his wife, and fugitive, Nunun Nurbaeti, to return home.

Fahri is perhaps testing the water, but for sure the call for the KPK's dissolution constitutes an attempt to weaken the commission as the most credible anticorruption force, which will in turn jeopardize democracy in the country.

The KPK indeed needs criticism, but we are afraid that a weak KPK, or its absence, will allow corruption to prevail and kill our hard-won democracy.