Jakarta – There is little enthusiasm for the newly elected leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), given that three of the five are old faces, including the new chairman, Setyo Budiyanto, a three-star police general who once served as the KPK's investigations director.
Hope looks slim, too, that the new leaders will restore the credibility of the KPK, which has in the past few years served as a tool of the ruling elite to silence opposition.
The candidates have been subject to criticism since their preliminary selection by a team handpicked by former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who was responsible for defanging what was once considered the country's most effective antigraft body.
Jokowi's grip on the KPK was evident, for example, in the commission's failure to launch an investigation into Jokowi's youngest son, Kaesang Pangarep, for allegedly accepting gratuities in the form of a private jet trip with his wife and aides to the United States in August. The KPK cleared him of all charges on the grounds that he was not a public official and lived with his own family, separately from his father.
Meanwhile, a series of gross violations of the antigraft body's code of ethics involving former chairman Firli Bahuri and former deputy chairman Lili Pintauli Siregar hurt the antigraft agency's reputation further.
Firli was forced to resign from his position last year after the Jakarta Police named him a suspect for allegedly extorting former agriculture minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo, whom the KPK has helped bring to justice on accepting bribes. Lili stepped down just before she faced a disciplinary hearing on allegations of accepting gratuities.
The slow death of the KPK, once the beacon of the fight against corruption in the country, has been pretty much expected.
During deliberations on revisions to the KPK Law in 2019, the House of Representatives, with Jokowi's blessing, stripped the KPK of key authorities that had enabled it to fight corruption.
The amended law allows the KPK to halt an investigation, which makes it no different from other law enforcement bodies. The new law also requires all KPK employees to be part of the civil servants corps, effectively depriving it of its independence. The KPK also has to obtain wiretapping warrants from a supervisory council that answers to the president.
The requirement to be a civil servant prompted the dismissal of dozens of the KPK's top investigators, who at that time were handling high-profile cases, including a bribery case involving Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Harun Masiku, who remains on the run.
The KPK also launched investigations into cases that are believed to be politically motivated because of their timing. The NasDem Party, which supported the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar presidential ticket, which opposed the Jokowi-backed Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka pair, had former agriculture minister Syahrul jailed for corruption. Anies and Muhaimin were also separately questioned in relation to corruption cases.
The final picks for the new leadership show that the KPK is unlikely to break the pattern. As president, Prabowo has shown little interest in doing anything different with the commission.
Prabowo has frequently said he wants a clean government and to fight against corruption. But the fact is, his administration has done very little to prove it, which is quite alarming considering he has a big cabinet, with 109 ministers and deputy ministers. His low commitment to the fight against corruption will be his Achilles heel, since his aides will see him as a weak leader who will not take action against such practices.
People, especially corruption watchdogs, have long mourned the death of the KPK. Perhaps it will make no difference if the government closes the commission altogether. After all, the KPK is an ad-hoc agency that was formed to pursue the fight against corruption at the beginning of the Reform era about two decades ago.
Letting the KPK go may also help the Prabowo administration save funds and finance his oversized cabinet, albeit at the expense of the country's fight against graft.
Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2024/11/22/time-to-end-the-kpk.htm