REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CIBUBUR -- Efforts to fight corruption must not slowdown or be restricted, or interfered with by anyone in power, Democratic Party (PD) Chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.
"The Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK's) efforts to fight corruption must not weaken, slow down or even be restricted by any law or whatever form of interference by those in power," Yudhoyono, a former Indonesian president, said here on Saturday.
Yudhoyono made the observation during his closing remarks at a joint discussion with netizens on the revision of Law No.30/2002 on the KPK.
He said he continued to encourage efforts to strengthen the fight against corruption although he is now outside the government. According to Yudhoyono, efforts to continue the fight against graft were also being made through legislative work by the PD cadres in the House of Representatives (DPR).
"I must continue to encourage the efforts aimed at eradicating corruption. Just because I am no longer in power, my determination to this effect does not change, our fight will be fought through the Democratic Party factions in the DPR," he said.
Yudhoyono is convinced that the Indonesian people want their country to be cleaned of corruption, which is why, he said, his party rigorously supported the fight against corruption.
The sixth president of Indonesia said during his administration, he could feel the strength of the corruption eradication movement led by the KPK.
He said during his administration, many ministers and PD cadres were charged with corruption allegations but he never interfered in the internal affairs of the KPK, particularly when it came to prosecuting someone involved in corruption.
"As a human being, I was saddened when I had to accept the fact that some of my ministers and PD cadres were found guilty of corruption in courts," he added.
He stressed that even though the KPK indicted his ministers and the PD cadres when he was president, yet he never used the power to interfere in its work.
The former president said if the powers that be had started intervening, he would have violated his oath of office and the people's mandate.
"If I did it, it would tarnish the oath and the mandate given to me as a president who should set an example in eliminating corruption and making the KPK a success," noted Yudhoyono.
He revealed that some 70 percent of the netizens who responded to his account in the social media did not agree with the move to revise the KPK law.
Some 12 percent agreed to it, he said, with the condition that the revision will reinforce the KPK, not weaken it and 18 percent did not make their stand clear.
Therefore, he hoped that people's aspirations regarding the revision of the KPK law would be heard by the DPR and by other state institutions.
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