UNAIR NEWS – Corruption is still an issue in Indonesia, especially with its unsettled law and regulations. Responding to the matter, the Student Executive Board of UNAIR Faculty of Law (BEM FH UNAIR) held a REACT: Legal Bootcamp discussion forum to discuss the impacts of the revised Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) laws.
Held on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, the forum featured Kurnia Ramadhan SH, a member of the ICW law division, as the guest speaker. Kurnia said that the anti-corruption is listed in the fourth point of Nawacita, a program coined by President Joko Widodo in his campaign.
“It sparked the community’s high expectations to Mr. Jokowi at that time,” he said.
Unfortunately, the Nawacita program was barely fulfilled as a political promise. The anti-corruption program, Kurnia added, is no less than a political tagline used to gain votes in the general election.
“Mr. Jokowi has been leading Indonesia for eight years, but the corruption eradication goes downturned,” he said.
He claimed that the law revision weakens the KPK and reduces its performance. The collapsing independence of KPK and mismanagement of the supervisory function also take part in slowing down the process of prosecuting corruption cases.
The statement is supported by the decline in Indonesia’s corruption perception index from 2019 to 2020. Another supporting data is proved by the decreasing number of sting operations (OTT) from year on year. In 2018, 30 sting operations were conducted by KPK. The number decreased to 21 operations by 2019 and dropped to 7 and 5 sting operations by 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Kurnia suggested revising the Corruption Criminal Act (UU Tipikor) as it refers to Law No. 20 of 2001.
“Practically, UU Tipikor in Indonesia has not been revised for 21 years. We don’t need KPK law revision; revise the UU Tipikor instead,” the Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher advised.
Besides, cultural obstacles also happen among the officials. A government official tends to ‘protect’ his/her colleagues who commit corruption. Law enforcement officers such as prosecutors and KPK investigators are also filled with people who actually commit acts of corruption themselves.
“That’s the reality of our law enforcement. We still have a lot of work on this matter. Today, criticism is important. We have the right to criticize [the government], corruption eradication included. We cannot be silent with the way KPK is being dragged down,” Kurnia concluded.
Author: Ghulam Phasa P.
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
