I received a motion of “the effort to weaken the authorities of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Indonesia”.
To that motion, I express my firm disagreement. First and foremost, we have to comprehend what is KPK, why was it established and what authorities does it possess. KPK was initially formed in 2002 through Law No. 30 of 2002. Its legal status is a “State Auxiliary Body”, thus it falls outside of the trias politica system in which it is neither executive nor legislative nor judicial body. This shows that it has an independent authority not subject to interference by any branches. It has its own investigators, independent from the Police. It can undertake tapping, if necessary. As such, if I could name one institution whose power can reach even the highest level of the government, KPK would be it. We have to understand that KPK serves noble purpose and objective.
As corruption is disseminating and public trust toward the government has reached its lowest level, KPK is left as the only hope we, the people, have. I do believe that we all accede to the fact that corruption is an ‘extraordinary crime’, thus requires serious efforts from the government to eradicate it. Unfortunately, it is mostly the government itself which commits such crime. With all due respect, the discourse to amend the Law on KPK, the exercise of the right of inquiry, and other efforts to weaken KPK are undoubtedly the projection of fear felt by the parliament members towards KPK. Why such fear exists? a reasonable man can conclude that they have been embroiled in corrupt acts. Against all odds, KPK still persists with high level of perseverance and resilience ample attacks from multiple parties. Only during the course of the last 6 months, KPK has undertaken more than 5 red-handed operations. This is evident of how effective KPK ostensibly is.
A great nation will never exists with the presence of corrupt government. If we are about to do benchmarking, we can see that the severe corruption conferred by Marcos in Philippines, Najib Razak in Malaysia, and many more have hold back the country’s development. Investors will flee, the citizens will suffer due to lack of development as all the tax money goes to the corruptors’ pocket. Sometimes, corruption does take several forms in which it might involve private stakeholders which commit bribery to win certain governmental projects as an example. The vivid consequences are definitely widening inequality amongst the citizens. Accordingly, as part of young generation, I ask you to come in tandem with me to strongly dissent this motion. We are the future leaders, and we shall unite our voice to protect an institution that has served this nation with incredible works to suppress corruption, whoever he is, whenever it is, and wherever it is. I understand that KPK itself might not be perfect, yet nothing is impeccable. What’s most important is the progress we make, that we are a better version than yesterday. To conclude, I dare to say that “Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.” Ladies and gentlemen, corruption is a disease and there is a cure for it. We are the cure. So, let’s heal our nation.
