JAKARTA – The sympathy shown by President Prabowo Subianto to the families of corruption perpetrators has drawn criticism. Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) emphasized that the injustice caused by corruption crimes is actually felt more by the wider community than the corruptors and their families.
In a meeting with six editors-in-chief in Hambalang, West Java, Sunday (6/4/2025), President Prabowo expressed his views when asked about the discourse on punishing corruptors.
He stated that he agreed with efforts to confiscate corruptors' assets as part of eradicating corruption. However, on the other hand, Prabowo also reminded the importance of paying attention to the aspect of justice for the families of corruptors, especially children and wives who were not involved in the crime.
"The state losses that they caused must be returned. That's why it's appropriate for the state to confiscate assets," said Prabowo.
What has caught the attention of the wider community is how Prabowo tries to sympathize with the families of corruptors. Asset confiscation, Prabowo said, needs to be carried out fairly and proportionally. He does not want legal action to cause suffering for innocent parties.
"But we also have to be fair to his wife and children. Well, if there are assets that were already his before he took office, for example, later legal experts will be asked to discuss whether it is fair that his children suffer too?" he said.
The Head of State Ignores Corruption Crimes
The discourse on impoverishing corruptors as a deterrent effect has actually been initiated more than a decade ago. However, until now the instrument to impoverish corruptors that needs to be strengthened through the Asset Confiscation Bill has not been passed.
In fact, Prabowo's coalition dominates the seats in the legislature, namely more than 80 percent. This means that if he has a high commitment, it is not difficult for Prabowo to eradicate corruption and provide a deterrent effect to corruptors by urging the DPR to process the bill that has been initiated since 2012.
Instead, the Asset Confiscation Bill was not included in the 2025 priority National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).
ICW considers President Prabowo's sympathy for corruptors' families to be misdirected. According to ICW researcher Wana Alamsyah, this sympathy should be viewed as a statement by the head of state who ignores the factual and actual conditions of the development of corruption crimes in Indonesia.
"Prabowo needs to see the reality that in Indonesia, injustice is actually felt more by victims of corruption (the wider community) than by corruptors and their families," Wana said in a statement received by VOI.
During the presidential election campaign some time ago, Prabowo often declared war on corruption. The statement was even delivered with passion. The former Minister of Defense should also be able to see that corruption is a white-collar crime whose motivation is the accumulation of wealth, which is currently being handled by a legal system that does not yet reflect a deterrent effect and deterrence.
"ICW considers that President Prabowo Subianto's sympathy regarding the confiscation of assets of corruptors' families is a form of condoning corruption and money laundering crimes. In fact, corruption often involves families," Wana emphasized.
Corruption Eradication Experiences Setbacks
In various corruption cases uncovered by law enforcement, the mode of using family members to place and disguise dirty money from corruption is common. This is partly because the process of ratifying the Asset Confiscation Bill is slow to process, so that it becomes a momentum for corruptors to secure their assets with family members.
The results of ICW's monitoring of Corruption Case Enforcement Trends from 2015-2023 show that there were 46 corruption cases involving family members. The total number of suspects named by law enforcement was 87 people. As many as 44 percent or 39 of them were family members of suspects who committed corruption.
In the context of corruption, corruptors' families are often directly involved as parties who also commit corruption (active perpetrators), or can also be indirectly involved as parties who receive or enjoy the proceeds of corruption (passive perpetrators).
"One of the modes used is by laundering money to obscure the origin of the proceeds of corruption," Wana said again.
SEE ALSO:
In addition, Law Number 8 of 2010 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering (UU TPPU) has also not been optimally utilized by law enforcers.
Based on ICW's records of corruption cases involving families, out of 46 cases processed, law enforcers only applied the TPPU Law to eight percent or four cases.
In addition, ICW's Verdict Trend data for the 2019-2023 period, the average return of replacement money by corruptors to the state treasury was only 13 percent of the total state losses due to corruption, which reached IDR 234.8 trillion. In other words, the government has failed to return state money stolen by corruptors.
"In fact, today, the discussion of corruption law enforcement should have moved up a class not only to the return of state losses but also the recovery of losses for victims of corruption," said Wana.
"With the sympathetic response from Prabowo, this indicates that the agenda for eradicating corruption in the future will be increasingly regressed," he concluded.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
