Last Saturday (30/6) the Electoral Commission (KPU) officially implemented a new series of regulations concerning the eligibility of candidates running in local and national general elections - Peraturan KPU no. 20 2018 (PKPU). One of the conditions outlined in the PKPU is that individuals with prior convictions for corruption will not be allowed to stand as candidates in next year’s general elections.
After meeting with the head of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has put on hold plans to roll out the draft changes to the Criminal Code (RKUHP), which was set to take place on the 17th August this year. The delay in implementing the new laws has been brought about by pressure from the KPK, with the Commission concerned that the changes will trivialise their work and limit their scope for eradicating corruption.
Corruption is one of the current issues happening in Indonesia. Based on Corruption Perception Index (IPK) in 2018, Indonesia ranked 89 th from 180 countries. Indonesia scored 38 from the scale of 0-100, where the lower number resembles the more corrupted country, and vice versa. In compare with 2017 rank, Indonesia placed 96th with the score of 37. The additional one point from IPK does not affected the law enforcement to maximize the corruption eradication, though we have achieved higher position.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) again summoned witnesses in the case of corruption of the construction of the Institute of Domestic Governance (IPDN) campus in Agam Regency, West Sumatra Province, on May 12, 2018. The four witnesses examined were Raden Pedi Lestario as project head from PT Hutama Karya, Jusuf Sitorus and Kurniati Evilia as staff of PT Hutama Karya, and Zaim Susilo as former staff of PT Hutama Karya.
One of the most notorious aspects of the authoritarian Soeharto regime (1966-1998) was the privileges enjoyed by a small number of favoured business tycoons who were able to harvest extraordinary economic rents from monopolies and contractual rights.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) on May 3, 2018 launched a Trend of Corruption Verdicts of 2017. The majority of corruption defendants were sentenced leniently by the judges. The average prison term for corruptors is only 2 years 2 months. The deterrent effect of punishment on corruptors is beginning to be questioned.
Based on the results of the ICW monitoring of 1,381 defendants of corruption cases convicted by judges, 1,127 (81.61%) were leniently sentenced.
Eradication of corruption necessarily requires the commitment of the state organizers. Although there are many actors in the fight against corruption, the government's commitment as the center of the source of policies and direction of eradicating corruption must be measurable.
Of course there are many ways of measuring the strength of the commitment to eradicate corruption. One of them is to see how many commitments have been fulfilled or implemented as a condition to the criteria of a succesful country in terms of eradication of corruption.
Corruption eradication must be done with various efforts, both prevention and repression. Community organizing advocacy, issue, and socialization of anti-corruption policies are indispensable to such efforts, including in law enforcement. The judiciary is one of the spearheads of the corruption eradication, especially in the effort of deterring further corruption.