REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SAMARINDA -- President Joko Widodo should maintain a firm attitude regarding efforts to weaken the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), a legal and political observer has stated.

"The arrest of KPK Deputy Chief Bambang Widjojanto by the police raises the question of whether the action is purely a legal process or political," Herdiansyah Hamzah of the Samarinda-based Mulawarman University, East Kalimantan, said here on Friday.

He noted that, considering the present conditions, there are at least three reasons why the arrest could be viewed as abnormal.

First, the arrest was made amid the process of naming Budi Gunawan, a police officer nominated by the president as the national police chief, as a corruption suspect by the KPK.

"The public is fully aware that Budi Gunawan, as a police chief nominee, has the potential to use his institution to retaliate against the KPK," the Mulawarman University lecturer said.

The second reason is that Bambang Widjojanto was arrested amid the status of Budi Gunawas as a suspect, which indicates there is an effort by the police to fight back.

"Bambang Widjajanto is charged in a case which had been ignored since 2010," he said.

The third is that the arrest has left the impression that it was done prematurely, as it was not preceded by adequate facts and was acted upon transparently for the public.

"I suspect this is not purely a legal case, but part of a battle against the enforcement of anti-corruption laws. There is the potential of the police institution to weaken the KPK," he said.

Head of the National Police public relations division, Inspector General Ronny F Sompie, said the arrest of the anti-graft agency commissioner had been performed without resorting to force.

"The arrest was done humanely. He (BW) welcomed it. No inhuman action had been taken. After all, he is a state official," he remarked.

Bambang Widjojanto has been arrested for allegedly prompting witnesses to give false testimony at a Constitutional Court session related to a dispute over the election of the head of Kotawaringin district, Central Kalimantan, in July 2010.

A case against Bambang Widjojanto was made based on a report (number: LP/67/I/2015/Bareskrim, dated January 15, 2015) by House Commission III member from the Indonesia Democratic Party Struggle Sugianto Sabran.

Yet, police observer Bambang Widodo Umar considers Bambang Widjojanto's arrest to have been politically motivated.

"I hope the police will remain independent and will not be easily politicized by the vested interests of certain groups," he remarked.

According to Bambang Widodo Umar, a third party has played a role in Bambang Widjojanto's arrest, which followed KPK's recent decision naming national police chief candidate Commissioner General Budi Gunawan in a corruption case.

"It seems it (arrest) has been aimed at weakening KPK, as well as the police," he added.

The police announced that they had arrested deputy chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Bambang Widjojanto while he was returning home after dropping his child off at school in Depok, West Java, on Friday.

It is not true that "BW was arrested while he was taking his child to school," head of the public information of the National Police Headquarters' Public Relations Division Senior Commissioner Rikwanto said.

He noted that the arrest happened while BW was returning home after dropping his child off at school, some one kilometer from the school.

"Neither his child or anyone in the school knew about the arrest," he added.

Rikwanto was responding to rumors that BW was arrested while he was taking his child to school at around 7.30 a.m.

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