In the midst of the attempt of the Special Committee of Inquiry to KPK to collect information to weaken the KPK, the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, which was previously a part of the Committee coalition, submitted its resignation on 24 July 2017.

Through its spokesman, Desmond Mahesa, Gerindra declared three reasons of resigning from the Committee, which was headed by Agun Gunanjar of Golkar Party. First, the formation of the Committee has not fulfilled the requirements according to DPR Code of Conduct, and Law No. 17 of 2014 on MPR, DPD, DPR and DPRD. Second, meetings of the Committee have been held without any prior approval of the coalition members, such as the visit to Sukamiskin prison. Third, Gerindra saw that there are unscrupulous individuals (oknum) who attempted to weaken KPK through the Committee. 

With Gerindra leaving, the Special Committee now only consists of 6 factions in the DPR: PDIP, Golkar, Nasdem, PPP, Hanura and PAN. Gerindra now joins PKS, Democrat and PKB, which had refused to join the Committee.

Six of the factions in the Special Committee are in fact political parties that support the government of Joko Widodo. Lately, PAN has also declared its intent to leave the Committee if it is found to weaken the KPK. The credibility of the Special Committee of Inquiry is beginning to be questioned, and has significantly declined.

What Gerindra has done by resigning from the committee should be appreciated. The Committee of Inquiry has been officially established by the DPR since May 2017 and has been problematic since its inception and is a political maneuver to corner the KPK.

It is sure that the Special Committee of Inquiry to KPK will not be objective, and the resulting conclusions and recommendations will certainly weaken or corrupt the KPK. This is because the committee of inquiry is full of political interests, because some of the names that joined in this committee are allegedly part of the mega corruption of the e-KTP project.

In addition, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) found that the lack of objectivity of the Special Committee is due to four conflicts of interest with the KPK behind this invocation of the right of inquiry. The conflict of interest concerns individual members of the Special Committee, Commissions of the DPR, the DPR as an institution, and the political parties from where the Committee members come.

The work of the Special Committee in the near future will soon be over – because under MD3 Law it is limited to 60 working days. Nevertheless, there is still time for the six political parties – supporters of the Jokowi Government – to withdraw from the Committee. If they still insist, President Jokowi should be able to demand political parties supporting him to cancel their involvement in the Committee. Jokowi’s commitment against corruption is ultimately at stake with the existence of his party supporters in the Special Committee of Inquiry to KPK. If the Committee continues, we need to question the anti-corruption commitments of the six parties and the President himself. (Emerson/Adnan)