Jakarta – House of Representatives (DPR) Commission III Deputy Chairperson Herman Hery from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction is leaving it entirely up to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on whether to issue a Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) to replace the revised Corruption Eradication Commission Law (UU KPK) which was recently enacted by the DPR.
Hery asserted that the DPR will not intervene in Widodo’s decision.
“In relation to the president’s decision, yes or no, the DPR will not intervene, it’s the president’s right with a number of preconditions to issue a Perppu, of course the president knows better and already knows”, Hery told journalists on Thursday September 26.
Hery is encouraging Widodo to listen to input from national figures as well as the public in relation to the Perppu KPK because there are several controversial articles in the revised law.
The controversial articles in the new law include the authority to terminate an investigation (SP3), the formation of an oversight committee and making KPK employees state civil servants (ASN).
“Of course however in order to issue a Perppu there are several preconditions, is it an emergency situation, a special situation, we don’t know. What needs to be understood is that the UU KPK is in force and has been ratified, this was because there was an agreement between the DPR and the government”, said Hery.
Pressure is mounting on Widodo to issue a Perppu. On Thursday Widodo said that he was considering issuing a Perppu after hearing input from various sources.
“There has been a great deal of input given to us, primarily on issuing a Perppu, we will of course way this up immediately, we are calculating”, said Widodo at press conference with a number of national figures at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Thursday. (dkp/dkp)
Notes
According to a report by Kompas yesterday, DPR Speaker Bambamg Soesatyo also said that it is entirely up to Widodo on whether or not to issue a Perppu to annul the revised KPK Law. “Whatever the president does, in principle the DPR will fully support him. Because everything comes back to the government in the end. If I’m still in the DPR I will be able to respond to it”, Soesatyo was quoted as saying on Thursday.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Jokowi Pertimbangkan Perppu KPK, Komisi III F-PDIP: DPR Tak Intervensi”.]
