Jakarta, April 28 (Antara) - The House of Representatives' (DPR's) decision to exercise its right to launch an inquiry into the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over its probe into the alleged electronic identity (e-ID) card graft scandal is getting mixed reactions.
The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said the decision to carry out the inquiry right has its legal flaws, because it has been decided upon without following a mechanism as regulated by law.
Yogyakarta-based Gajah Mada University's Anticorruption Study Center (Pukat) said the initiative to exercise the right to conduct an inquiry into the KPK is against the law. It said the House inquiry right should be used against the government, not against a law enforcing agency, such as the KPK.
DPR, in its plenary session on Friday, had approved a controversial move by several lawmakers to exercise its right to inquiry on the performance of the KPK. The motion came after the anti-graft agency rejected an earlier request of Commission III of the DPR to hand over a recorded copy of the dossiers of lawmaker Miryam S. Haryani, who is implicated in a Rp5.9 trillion scandal over the procurement of e-ID cards.
Pukat researcher Hifdzil Alim told a press conference on Friday that based on Article 79 point 3 Law No. 17 Year of 2014 that the inquiry right allows DPR to conduct an investigation on the implementation of a law and/or government policies, with regards to important and strategic matters, which have a wide impact on the lives of the people and are against regulations.
"This is clear, the inquiry rights should be carried out against the government, not against a law enforcing institution, such as the KPK," said Hifdzil.
According to him, the misuse of the inquiry right indicated that political pressures are on the rise when the KPK is investigating the e-ID card alleged corruption case, which involves members of the DPR.
He was also of the view that the use of the inquiry right by the DPR could hamper the efforts to investigate the e-ID card corruption scandal, which is believed to have inflicted losses to the state amounting to Rp2.3 trillion.
This is because if the investigation report (BAP) of suspect lawmaker Miryam S Haryani is opened, there is the possibility that names mentioned in the BAP would be ready to flee. "They can be an 'obstruction of justice,'" he said.
Hence, the inquiry initiative has been launched only as a 'counter attack' against the KPK so that it faces obstacles in revealing big cases. "The experience has proven that a counter attack is launched each time the KPK is trying to investigate big cases," Hifdzil said.
In the meantime, the ICW said the DPR' s decision to exercise its right to inquiry on the KPK has procedural flaw and that it is considered invalid.
The ICW said in a press statement in Jakarta on Friday that at the DPR plenary, the chairman had not carried out the provisions of the inquiry mechanism as regulated under Article 199, point (3) Law No. 17 Year of 2014 on MPR, DPR/DPRD and DPD, or MD3 (legislative institution law).
The MD3 Law stipulates that the (plenary) on the proposal of an inquiry right should be attended by more than half of the DPR members, and an approval should be taken only if more than half of the DPR members attending the plenary support it.
This mechanism was not followed by the Plenary Chairman, House Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah who hurriedly banged the gavel to take a decision approving the proposal of inquiry.
Fahri ignored interruptions by members who refused the decision. Thus, many House members had staged a walk out and did not take part in the voting process. The factions, which staged a walk out were the House factions from the Gerindra Party, Democratic Party and the PKB Party.
Factions of Gerindra, National Awakening (PKB) and Democrats Party (PD) in the House of Representatives (DPR) have objected to a plan to exercise inquiry right.
Several members of the parties walked out because chairman of the DPR's plenary meeting announced the approval of the inquiry despite the objections, at the Parliament Building on Friday.
"The decision of the House Deputy Speaker, who made a unilateral decision without the agreement of House members was illegal and an arbitrary act," Donal Fariz, the coordinator of the Political Corruption Division of the ICW, said in a press statement.
In the meantime, KPK has vowed to continue to investigate the e-ID card graft case, despite the House agreeing to exercise its inquiry right on the KPK, its deputy chairman Laode M. Syarif stated.
"We will remain focused on handling corruption cases, including the e-ID card corruption scandal. We have heard that the DPR has approved to exercise the inquiry right on the KPK, though several lawmakers rejected it. Some House factions even staged a walkout. Whether the matter will have consequences on the validity of the inquiry right, we will study it first," Syarif pointed out.
However, the KPK deputy chairman will not intervene in the affairs of political parties in the House.
"The KPK will not interfere in the political parties' affairs but hoped they would understand the outlook of the anti-graft body, which has rejected to reveal the BAP (investigation report)," Syarif emphasized.
The proposal on the House exercising its inquiry right on the KPK surfaced when the anti-graft body held a hearing with Commission III of the DPR on Wednesday (April 19) as the body had refused to reveal information outside the court regarding the results of its investigation against Haryani, a former House's Commission II member of the Hanura Party faction, with regard to the e-ID card graft scandal.
At a court session for holding a hearing on the alleged corruption case related to the e-ID card project on March 30, 2017, KPK investigator Novel Baswedan who had handled the case said that Haryani was pressured by several Commission III members to not confess facts on receiving and distributing money from the e-ID card budget. ***2***
(a014/INE/B003)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 28-04-2017 23:33:3 |
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