•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Antigraft watchdogs have denounced a plan by police to arrest several officials of the Corruption Eradication Commission, saying the move is part of a systematic effort to weaken the high-profile commission.

The groups spoke out as the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office met to allegedly discuss bribery suspicions involving the commission, which is also known as the KPK. Police and AGO sources have said that three of the four KPK deputy chairmen are the likely targets.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji denied the meeting was held to discuss the allegations.

On Tuesday, an anonymous police official said KPK officials were targets of a probe into a corruption case involving private company PT Masaro Radiokom.

With the commission already under scrutiny because of pending murder charges against its suspended chairman, Antasari Azhar, activists were concerned that enemies of the commission are trying to deliver a knockout blow against the powerful body.

“We are worried that the police would just name them as suspects so that they would be suspended from the KPK,” said Emerson Yuntho, coordinator for legal and judiciary affairs at Indonesia Corruption Watch, an NGO.

Emerson said the commissioners would automatically be suspended from their positions if the case went to trial, crippling the legitimacy of the body.

In May, Antasari was named a suspect in the love-triangle murder of a businessman. He was suspended and his four deputies have assumed the leadership of the commission in his absence.

Teten Masduki, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia, another leading antigraft NGO, said there had been several attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the KPK, including a long delay in approving a pending bill that is needed to provide the legal basis for the KPK’s Anti-Corruption Court to continue.

“These aren’t separate incidents and indicate that there are systematic efforts to rein in the KPK,” Teten said.

Teten called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to be “true to his word that there must not be any rivalry between law enforcement agencies.”

Members of the two organizations, along with the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) and the Society for Judicial Reform, visited the commission’s headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, in a show of support for the KPK.

Patra Zein, chairman of the Jakarta chapter of LBH, said the death of the KPK would mean the death of the reform movement and the fight against corruption.

“The KPK was established to eliminate rampant corrupt practices in Indonesia that have ruined the nation,” he said. “The AGO and the police are even listed as the country’s most corrupt institutions. So why should we trust them to handle corruption cases?”

Teten said that without the KPK, Yudhoyono would have a hard time fulfilling his campaign promise to clean up government because the public appeared to have more faith in the commission than in the police.