Gerindra Rejects Efforts To Weaken Anti-Graft Body

Jakarta, Feb 7 (Antara) - The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party has rejected the efforts to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) through revisions of laws, the party`s Secretary General Ahmad Muzani stated. "To that effect, Gerindra is doing its best to halt efforts to revise the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHP) and the Criminal Code," Muzani pointed out in a written statement, the copy of which was made available to Antara, here on Friday. He emphasized that his party had continued to follow the developments of the plan to revise the KUHP and KUHP. "In principle, the fight against corruption must continue to be carried out." Muzani added that the revision process of the KUHP could be used by certain parties as an entry point to reduce the authority of the KPK in fighting against corruption in the country. He mentioned among others the threat to reduce the KPK`s authority to fight corruption as the revision could cause corruption to be considered no longer as a special crime. Besides that the KPK will no longer have the freedom to conduct wiretapping as part of the methods to investigate corruption. In fact, he pointed out that people`s expectation from the fight against corruption was very big. Therefore, Gerindra would make every effort to protect the authority of KPK so that it would not be reduced. "What is being done by the KPK right now is already on the right track. Gerindra feels that the KPK role should continue to be reinforced and be developed through the state`s mechanism," he added. In the meantime, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has asked for a halt of the discussion on the revised draft of the Criminal Procedural Law (RKUHAP) at the House of Representatives (DPR). "There are three reasons that could be used as the basis for stopping the discussion by the House Commission III, led by working group chairman Azis Syamsudin from the Golkar Party," KPK deputy chairman Bambang Widjojanto stated through a text message, here on Thursday last week. Firstly, Bambang pointed out, the time left for them to discuss it was short as compared to the substantial and complex problems that are left to be settled. He added that the DPR had only 108 working days left while the number of issues to be discussed has reached around 1,169 plus other articles. Indonesia plans to hold legislative elections on April 9 to select new members of the DPR. "Secondly, the draft received by the KPK is still far from adequate because it cannot explain completely the fundamental problems in the future KUHAP and their solutions," he observed. The draft, he meant, was the academic draft of 2012 from the team that wrote the RKUHAP of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. "Thirdly, people who own sovereignty have even been sidelined in the discussion so far. KPK as a user has never been invited to participate in the discussion," he added. Among the issues that have triggered controversy in the RKUHAP, are regulations that give extraordinary power to the judicial commissioner to decide whether or not a case will be continued and those on confiscation and wiretapping in a criminal case process (including corruption). Under the RKUHAP, the judicial commissioner will also be given an authority to suspend the arrest of a suspect or an accused against money or persons as guarantee. Minimally there are 12 important issues that have caused polemic with regard to the discussion of the RKUHP, which have the potential to weaken or cut KPK`s powers, he explained. The first is the omission of provisions on investigation. Others include implementation of KUHAP which can only be done on cases uncovered by the Criminal Code (KUHP), regulation for stopping investigation, the cut of authority to extend arrest at the stage of investigation and shorter detention time for suspects. The other issues are that the judge is allowed to suspend detention by investigators while confiscation may only be done upon a judge`s consent, and wiretapping may only be done upon a judge`s permission, while (in urgency) a judge may cancel permit for wiretapping and acquittal may not be appealed. The sentence from the Supreme Court meanwhile, may not be heavier than the lesser court`s decision and the principle of reverse burden of proof may not be applied. According to data from the Civil Community Coalition for Anti-Corruption and Legal Reform, only 12 to 13 people from the working committee attended the discussion of RKUHAP so far.