Asset Forfeiture Bill Begins Debate as Three Key Issues Are Highlighted

Commission III of Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR) began discussing the Asset Forfeiture Bill with experts at a public hearing on Tuesday (27 October 2026).

Public policy expert Yadi Surya Diputra highlighted three key issues in the bill.

“These three issues did not arise from an assessment of existing conditions in various countries, but rather as a consortium of global issues,” Yadi said at the Commission III meeting room in the parliamentary complex.

He said the first issue concerns rules on the accumulation of unexplained wealth by state officials. In his view, this framing appears to cast all public officials in a negative light.

He compared the proposal with the system in the United States, where public officials are required to divest themselves of all their businesses first, meaning their State Officials’ Wealth Reports (LHKPN) start from zero. He said this makes their wealth easier to assess.

“Meanwhile, in Indonesia, civil servants and political officials are allowed to do business, making the LHKPN difficult to measure,” Yadi said.

The second issue, he continued, concerns non-conviction-based asset forfeiture. The third relates to the reversal of the burden of proof, under which the party making an allegation is not required to prove it.

Yadi added that debate and discussion of asset forfeiture in Indonesia had been under way for 18 years without reaching a definitive conclusion.