Corruption Eradication Commission Deputy Chair Alexander Marwata's Statement Considered Simplifying Corruption Crimes

Alexander Marwata (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Alexander Marwata was asked to read the Law on Corruption Crimes (Tipikor). He was deemed to have failed to understand after saying that village heads who committed small amounts of corruption did not need to be jailed because they considered the punishment ineffective.

Alexander Marwata said that returning financial losses to the village treasury was considered more effective and efficient than imprisoning village heads who were involved in budget irregularities. He conveyed this when launching the Anti-Corruption Village in Panggungharjo Village, Bantul, Yogyakarta on Wednesday, December 1.

"I think that what needs to be considered in the future, including taking action against village heads, is that if a village head is proven to have taken money, but the value is not much, if it is processed in court, the costs are higher, in the end, it will be ineffective and inefficient," he said at the time.

The ineffectiveness of sentencing is due to the fact that the judicial process that is carried out will take a long time and cost a lot more than the misappropriated money. Thus, Alexander considered that the village head should be fired and asked to immediately return the money they had misappropriated through imprecise practices.

"Tell the village head to return it, if there is a stipulation to fire the village head, the problem will be resolved. If there are no provisions, how will the rules be made, maybe through village consultations (musdes) with the community, they are the ones who choose," he said.

"We agree that when it comes to state financial losses, regional finances, and village losses, how much money can be returned to the village treasury, regional treasury, and state treasury, I think it is more effective than imprisoning people," added Alexander.

This statement also received a reaction from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW). ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana asked Alexander to immediately read the Corruption Law in its entirety and seriously.

"The KPK commissioner must be really serious when he reads the Anti-Corruption Law," Kurnia told reporters, Friday, December 3.

This anti-corruption activist said Alexander's statement suggested that he did not understand the applicable laws and regulations. The reason is that Article 4 of the Anti-Corruption Law states that returning state losses cannot erase a person's crime.

In addition, Kurnia said, corrupt practices cannot be judged large or small by looking at the amount of money taken. According to him, even a small amount of rioting can have an impact on the lives of many people.

"So Marwata's opinion seems to simplify the problem of corruption," he said.

Furthermore, Kurnia assessed that Alexander might want to implement restorative justice. However, he considers this step inappropriate for complex crimes such as corruption.

"Moreover, corruption has been categorized as an extraordinary crime," said Kurnia.

He asked Alexander to be careful in making public statements because this kind of thing could have serious implications. One of them, it is not impossible that in the future corrupt village heads will be more enthusiastic about carrying out presumptuous practices because they can be freed from the snares of the law as he said.

In addition, Kurnia said, Alexander should have realized that the village fund budget is one of the sectors with the most indications of corruption in the first semester of 2021. Based on ICW's records, there were at least 55 cases with a total state loss of Rp35.7 billion.

"Not only that but the Village Head is also ranked third in terms of the background of the perpetrators with a total of 61 people. Therefore, corruption committed by the village head cannot be underestimated as stated by the KPK Commissioner," he concluded.