Viral Photo Of HTI Emblem On Employee Desk, KPK: Ex-Employee Deliberately Spreading False And Misleading Information

Gedung KPK (Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has spoken about a viral photo showing a table with the Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) flag on one of the employee's desks.

Acting KPK Spokesperson for Enforcement, Ali Fikri, said the photo uploaded on social media was a hoax and was deliberately spread to mislead parties outside the anti-corruption commission. He is also the employee who has now been fired.

"It was concluded that the person concerned deliberately and without rights had spread false and misleading information to external parties. This then caused hatred from the public which had an impact on reducing the image and reputation of the KPK," said Acting KPK Spokesperson for Enforcement Sector Ali Fikri to journalists, Saturday, September 2nd.

The name of the employee who was fired was Iwan Ismail, who had served as a security guard.

According to Ali, Iwan was dismissed because he had committed serious violations as regulated in Article 8 letter s of Perkom Number 10 of 2016 concerning Discipline for Employees and Advisors of the KPK and violating the KPK Code of Ethics as stipulated in Perkom Number 07 of 2013 concerning Basic Personal Values, Code of Ethics, and the KPK Code of Conduct.

Meanwhile, the employee who puts up the flag is proven not to be affiliated with HTI which belongs to a banned group or organization. "So there are no regulations that prohibit his actions," said Ali.

Even so, he reminded all KPK personnel to avoid using religious attributes in the work environment, except for those used as places of worship. "In order to maintain religious harmony," he said.

The viral photo of the HTI flag on the employee's desk was written by Iwan in his open letter on Wednesday, September 29. He admitted to photographing the flag on the 10th floor of the KPK's Red and White Building, which is the investigator's room.

He claimed to have photographed the flag at the same time as a wave of mass protests against the ratification of the 2019 KPK Law revision.

"After there was a big demonstration at the KPK building on Friday, September 20, 2019 with the issue of "KPK Taliban" then at night after security picket I returned with my friend to go up to the 10th floor and was still caught seeing the black and white flag (owned by HTI) it was still installed on the same desk, so I took a photo again to make a report with the assumption that this flag caused the Taliban KPK to make noise. Since it was Friday night and the day after tomorrow I had my day off, so I intend to make a report on Monday, Iwan wrote in his Facebook status.