Generally, the anti-corruption measures in 2016 were weak, especially the performance of law enforcers such as prosecutors and police force.
This was the conclusion of a discussion titled Anti-corruption Outlook 2017 between four researchers of UGM Faculty of Law Centre for Anti-corruption Studies (PUKAT). The researchers are Zaenurrohman, Faris Fachryan, Bayu Panji Pangestu and Yuris Reza Kurniawan.
"Investigation of corruption is mostly done on small cases still, not many big cases have been uncovered by the prosecutors and police officers. Some cases even came to a halt,” said Yuris Reza Kurniawan at PUKAT UGM on Monday (16/1).
Zaenurrohman said the measures taken in 2016 by Illegal Retribution Task Force needs to be appreciated but also criticised because there seems to be no follow up to the arrest cases that have occurred.
"PUKAT UGM noted there are two areas of priority for the Task Force, namely, law enforcers and justice institutions. We also hope that the arrests that have been made will be followed by internal improvements, such as bureaucracy reform, work culture, integrity pact, etc,” he said.
Researcher Bayu Panji Pangestu said in terms of bureacracy reform in 2016, it has not shown any progress, including the fact that many parliamentarians have not submitted their wealth reports whilst the law on state civil apparatus has not advanced for bureaucracy improvement.
Faris Fachryan has the opinion that year 2016 became a new phase for the worsening relations between police and anti-corruption commission (KPK). The tendency of the police to refuse examinations by the KPK in several cases comes as a bad news to the anti-corruption mission.
The cases in 2016 indicate that there are still many weaknesses in anti-corruption measures. Instead of strengthening, weakening anti-corruption happens in some sectors. The PUKAT UGM further encourages the Illegal Retribution Task Force to prioritise on this issue for law enforcers and justice institutions while Parliament has to maintain political ethics and strengthen ethical bodies. They further need to resolve the draft law on anti-corruption.