TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) senior investigator, Novel Baswedan, expressed deep pessimism towards the revised KPK Law Constitutional Court lawsuit. He argues that it is made worse by the reluctance of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to side with the country’s war on corruption.
“I am a little pessimistic. Not about the judicial review but the message shown by the president as a state representative who seems to not support the eradication of corruption,” said Novel Baswedan to Tempo on Tuesday, November 5.
The revised KPK Law is widely considered to be a new weakening tool for the corruption watchdog, especially by the senior investigator himself; “The Law not only weakens [the KPK] but it can also kill it.”
He argues that his fears are backed by President Jokowi’s reluctance to annul the revised KPK law with a regulation in lieu of law, simply known as the Perpu KPK.
Novel Baswedan maintains that the weakening of KPK is happening systematically which can be detected by not just the issuance of the revised KPK law but also its followup in the form of constant attacks on KPK employees by social media buzzers that also constantly try to convince people that the revision is with the government’s greatest intentions.
