Agus Rahardjo Spills Jokowi's Intervention in KPK's Setya Novanto Case

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Former chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Agus Rahardjo, revealed that the government led by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has been interfering with the KPK since the mega corruption case of the electronic ID card or e-KTP procurement in 2017.

Agus who chaired the KPK for the 2015-2019 period recalled that in 2017 President Jokowi summoned him alone to the Palace.

“I was summoned by the President alone. At that time, he was assisted by Pak Pratikno (Minister of State Secretariat). So, I was surprised because he usually summons five [KPK leaders] not just one,” Agus said during the interview on Rosi's talk show program, as quoted from Kompas TV’s YouTube channel on Friday, December 1.

Additionally, Agus was instructed to enter the palace through a discreet route to avoid media attention. He claimed that President Jokowi requested him to halt the investigation into the massive corruption case related to the former speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), Setya Novanto.

However, Agus informed the President that an investigation warrant had been issued to determine Setya Novanto, who was the Golkar leader at that time, as a suspect. Furthermore, the KPK Law did not stipulate the investigation termination warrant (SP3), so Agus was unable to comply with the president's order.

“I spoke [to the President] as is, that I had issued Sprindik three weeks ago, and that the KPK had no SP3, so there was no way for me to stop it,” Agus explained.

Although he had discussed the incident with colleagues, this marked his first time disclosing it to the media. Following the events, the KPK Law underwent revision, resulting in changes to the agency's authority that should be responsible to the President and the implementation of the SP3 policy.

Upon the implementation of the revised law on September 13, 2019, the three KPK leaders, namely Agus Rahardjo, Saut Situmorang, and Laode M Syarif, stepped down.

Prior to the revised law, the KPK functioned independently and was only responsible to the people.

Agus Rahardjo revealed this government’s intervention in the KPK during a talk on the current KPK chairman Firli Bahuri, who was named a suspect in an extortion case. He argued that Firli had already shown deficiencies when serving as the KPK’s Deputy for Enforcement during his tenure. Agus had even written an open letter to President Jokowi not to appoint Firli as the KPK chairman, yet the request was dismissed.

ADE RIDWAN YANDWIPUTRA

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