UGM Centre for Anti-Corruption Studies (PUKAT) has urged President Joko Widodo to reject amendments to Law no 30 Year 2002 on Anti-corruption Commission as these are seen as weakening the anti-corruption measures that are currently taken by the KPK.
“The urgency to amend the Anti-corruption Commission Law is unclear. On the contrary, the attempt to weaken it is clearly visible in the amendments plan,” said researcher of the PUKAT UGM, Hifdzil Alim, S.H., M.H., to journalists at PUKAT UGM on Tuesday (21/3).
Hifdzil said there were four main points stated in the amendments, including Monitoring Board formation, wiretapping rules, inability of KPK to appoint independent investigators, and issuance of instruction to stop investigation.
He said the emergence of the Monitoring Board will stir resistance because the Board will be appointed and assigned by the President. He further lamented the wiretapping that can only be done when investigation is already underway after enough evidence is available. Meanwhile, the inability to appoint independent investigators will cause a conflict of interests if the investigators not elected by the KPK work on a case that involve their institutions.
“On issuance of instruction to stop investigation, this is clearly a step back as it is feared to be misused for a case,” he said.
Zaenur Rohman, another researcher from PUKAT, said amendments to Law no 30 Year 2002 was a form of weakening attempt by the Parliament (DPR). They also try to do it through the questioning discourse on the investigation into the e-KTP (ID card) corruption. He said this discourse was untimely when the KPK was investigating the corruption allegation on the e-KTP. The proposal may affect the law enactment done by the KPK.
“Processes of law enactment should not be disrupted by political manouvres,” he said.
Zaenur asked the DPR to respect the ongoing legal process on the e–KTP, also to stop other political manouvres that can affect the legal process.
“We continue to support the KPK to go with the legal process on e-KTP corruption allegations unitl these are resolved,” he said.