TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Newly-appointed Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Firli Bahuri on Saturday hinted that the anti-graft watchdog under his leadership will focus on preventing acts of corruption.

He said on Saturday’s interview with Tempo on December 21, that the act of focusing on preventing corruption is mentioned in the revised KPK Law and Presidential Decree No.54/2018 regarding the national strategy to prevent corruption.

“The presidential decree mentions that the national strategy to prevent corruption, which means that prevention is prioritized. This does not necessarily mean that prosecution, investigations, and prosecutions are set aside,” said Firli at the Police science university in Jakarta.

He asserts that the old KPK Law sees the organization’s main tasks, sequentially, is to coordinate, supervise, prosecute, and lastly monitor the government. Meanwhile, the new revised KPK Law in order is prevention, coordination, monitoring, supervision, and placed last is a prosecution.

Moreover, the former Police Chief of West Nusa Tenggara likened corruption eradication acts to eradicating malaria, which he argues cannot be exterminated by treating those who have contracted the illness but must be prevented such as in a total neighborhood cleanup.

In terms of corruption eradication, Firli Bahuri asserts that it cannot be realized just by arresting the people guilty of corruption.

Read more about Tempo’s interview with the new KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri in the December 22 edition of Tempo Magazine.

M ROSSENO AJI