New anticorruption body sets high principles for members
New anticorruption body sets high principles for members
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A lawyer expressed the fear here on Monday that no Indonesian
would be capable of meeting the criteria for membership of a
"powerful" new commission to eradicate corruption (KPTPK) which
would have a remit and powers far in excess of other law
enforcement institutions.
Frans Hendra Winarta, a member of the National Law Commission,
told a discussion that the members of such a commission should be
impartial, imbued with moral and professional integrity, and be
far removed from the culture of corruption of the past.
Monday's discussion, organized by the Society for Humanity and
Justice (Humanika), analyzed the extent of the anticorruption
commission's powers.
Frans said that a white paper on the establishment of the
commission had been handed over to the House of Representatives
for deliberation.
He pointed out that the wide powers to be entrusted to the
commission could be prone to abuse. The suggested powers included
the banning of suspects from traveling overseas, intercepting
communications, monitoring the work of other law enforcement
institutions and even reopening decided cases.
"We have figured out the criteria for joining the
'supercommission', but no names immediately come to mind. No one
fits the criteria listed in the white paper. We did find a few
names, but either they were already too old for the work or had
already passed away," Frans remarked.
Teras Narang, chairman of the House of Representatives'
Commission II for legal affairs, warned that some of the
commission's tasks overlapped with those of the Public Servants'
Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN).
Admitting that the white paper on the establishment of the
commission had yet be debated, he suggested that the KPKPN be
dissolved as it did not have the power to investigate the sources
of public officials' assets.
"Just integrate it with the anticorruption commission. I'm
afraid that such an overlap of authority could be used by the
corruptors to seek out loopholes," he said.
John Pires, a member of the KPKPN, stressed that what the
country needed was not the establishment of another commission,
which would only place an additional burden on the state budget,
but rather a way of strengthening the existing bodies in charge
of supervising state officials and institutions, the police and
the public prosecution service.
The proposal to establish the commission to eradicate
corruption is in line with Law No. 31/1999 on corruption.
The government had established a joint team to eradicate
corruption as an embryonic version of the commission, but this
was then disbanded by the Supreme Court for exceeding its
authority.