TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Three months of Firli Bahuri’s chairmanship has ended hopes for the Corruption Eradication Commission. A betrayal of the reformasi mandate.
ALMOST 17 years after it was established, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is now at its lowest ebb. The revised law at the end of last year stripped it of its powers. The poor quality of commissioners for the 2019 to 2023 period has weakened the performance of the commission, which used to always be held in high public esteem.
The revision to the KPK Law by the 2014 to 2019 House of Representatives (DPR) in Joko Widodo’s first administration made the investigation of corruption complex and bureaucratic. At the same time, Jokowi put forward compromise candidates that led to the leadership of Firli Bahuri at the anti-corruption commission.
Since being appointed on December 20, 2019, Firli Bahuri and his four deputies have created a “new tradition”. He visits other institutions under the excuse of prevention. He prioritizes ceremonies, including cooking demonstrations in front of journalists. The leadership of this period has forgotten the most important part of preventing corruption: effective prosecution creates a deterrent effect.
It is fair to say that the KPK has handled no new cases in this period. There is a new joke: Firli is incredible because in the three months of his leadership corrupters have vanished. The proof of this is that no corrupters have been arrested. This is a jibe with a strong basis in reality.
It is true that at the beginning of this period, the KPK detained General Election Commission member Wahyu Setiawan, who was alleged to have taken a bribe from Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Harun Masiku. But this arrest was a continuation from the previous leadership. Furthermore, the continuation of this case is not clear because the KPK has been unable to detain Harun. It has also not been serious in tracing former Supreme Court secretary Nurhadi Abdurrachman, who has been declared a suspect in a Rp46 billion gratuity case.
The new leadership of the KPK is now busy with internal matters. Firli and his colleagues give the impression of having sidelined a number of personnel seen as not toeing the line. They have been returned to their respective institutions, namely the National Police Headquarters and the Attorney General’s Office. In the past, the KPK tried to retain the best personnel whose institutions wanted them back.
The authority to issue a document for an investigation in the field is also now a problem. In the previous period, an investigation document only had to be signed by one or two members of the KKK leadership. Now everything has to go across Firli’s desk. The agility of investigators, which used to be their strength, is no more.
The KPK leadership has no clear vision for preventing corruption. The corruption prevention program underway at the KPK now is no more than a continuation of that in the previous period. There have been no new initiatives from Firli and the KPK leadership in the prevention of corruption that they have been preaching.
According to surveys, in the last three months, public trust in the KPK has collapsed. A poll by Indo Barometer showed that it has now fallen to number four in the rankings. In a survey carried out by Cyrus Network at the end of January and published in March, the KPK as an institution was less trusted than the police – something which has never happened before.
With this state of affairs, we can now say farewell to the eradication of corruption. Joko Widodo’s administration and the DPR are responsible for the betrayal of those who fought for Indonesian reforms in 1998.
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