TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) expressed its disagreement with the plan to punish corruptors with strict death penalty. The organization argued that there are other alternatives that provide deterrent effects for corruption suspects.

"There are plenty of options to deter corruptors [from committing their crime]. Such as impoverishing them, handing them the maximum imprisonment, revoking their political rights, and many more," said ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana on Tuesday, December 10, 2019.

Talks of subjecting corruptors to capital punishment were first mentioned by President Joko Widodo or Jokowi, who was openly willing to call for a revision on the Law on Corruption. Jokowi asserted that it can be done as long as there is enough support from the people.

Kurnia Ramadhana argued that Jokowi has misinterpreted the need to revise the Law on Corruption as an effort to implement death penalty for corruptors. Whereas, Kurnia explained that the issue has been addressed in Article 2 (2) of the Corruption Law.

"So, the President's statement on revising the Corruption Law based on public interest to implement death penalty is a major misconception," said Kurnia.

ICW's data in 2018 suggests that based on the existing law, judges have only handed prison sentences up to 2 years and 5 months for a corruption suspect, which highlights that the law has not been used to its full effect.

Moreover, the ICW researcher argued that the main issue is not about applying death penalty to corruptors but more about ensuring the future of corruption eradication attempts. ICW asserted that such goal can be achieved if President Jokowi issued the long-promised regulation in lieu of law (Perpu) on Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK Law).

EGI ADYATAMA