Febriamy Hutapea

Few Sparks, But Still No Consensus on KPK as Indonesia Lawmakers Meet

A hearing in Indonesia's House of Representatives on Wednesday involving the Corruption Eradication Commission and the heavily criticized House Commission III, National Police and Attorney General’s Office failed to produce any of the controversies that have marked previous sessions.

It was the first time the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK, had met up with police and the AGO since the release of a scathing report by the presidential fact-finding team, which recommended, among other things, an immediate halt to the investigation against suspended KPK deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah.

The report also recommended sanctions against officials found to have “contrived” the case against the two deputies, as well as sweeping reforms and “personnel repositioning” within all three law enforcement agencies.

National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, however, refused to comment on the team’s recommendations during the three-hour morning session with Commission III, which oversees law and legislation.

Bambang said he could not respond because he had only just received the report and needed time to study it before reporting to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his intended course of action.

He did, however, signal during a late-night session that the police would continue their case against Bibit and Chandra, claiming they had strong and sufficient evidence. This runs counter to the recommendations of the fact-finding team and even the AGO, which has had to return the case files on the two deputies a number of times because of “loopholes.”

“For us, we still want to process the case,” Bambang said.

Yudhoyono is expected to announce his final position on Monday, with speculation growing that senior government officials implicated in the case have until then to step down or face dismissal, with the president facing a potential public backlash.

Commission III Chairman Benny K Harman said on the sidelines of the meeting that he had asked the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office to look at the fact-finding team’s recommendations and make a decision on their course of action.

Benny, who heads a commission seen as biased in favor of the police and AGO, said if the recommendations were accepted, the police could issue a letter, known as an SP3, that would formally close the investigation into the KPK deputies, or the attorney general could decide not to take the case to trial.

He said Commission III wanted to find some common ground among the KPK, National Police and AGO, as an initial step in creating a road map for the curbing of corruption.

Lawmaker Gayus Lumbun of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), however, was not so reserved, urging Yudhoyono along with the police and the AGO not to implement the fact-finding team’s recommendations.

“The courts are the only one who can decide whether a case is valid or not, so this case should not be dropped just because of the recommendations,” he said.

The House hearing was suspended at 1 p.m. because Bambang and Hendarman were summoned for a limited cabinet meeting at the Presidential Office to discuss the team’s recommendations.

When the hearing reconvened, Hendarman said he had yet to decide whether he would accept the resignation of Deputy Attorney General Abdul Hakim Ritonga, who has been implicated in the alleged plot to frame the two KPK deputies.

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