At the end of their working hours, the 57 discharged KPK staff performed a long march from the KPK Main Office building in Rasuna Said Road, South Jakarta, to the KPK's Anti-Corruption Learning Centre (ACLC) building, which is located 500 meters from the anti-graft headquarters.
Among the 57 people who joined the long march were former KPK senior investigator Novel Baswedan, former director of the KPK's Anti-Corruption Promotion and Campaign Department, Giri Suprapdiono, and former KPK staff union head Yudi Purnomo Harahap.
After arriving at the KPK ACLC building, the 57 dismissed staff bid farewell to each other.
At the farewell, former KPK investigator M Praswad Nugraha said that the 57 former KPK staff will establish the Indonesia Memanggil (Indonesia Calling) IM57+Institute to continue their struggle against corruption in the country.
The institute will serve as a platform for dismissed KPK staff to continue their anti-corruption struggle by hosting anti-corruption discussions and education and will serve as an anti-corruption watchdog, he informed.
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"The IM57+Institute will serve as our platform to unite and continue our struggle to eradicate corruption from this country," Nugraha stated at the ACLC building.
Meanwhile, Baswedan's wife Rina Emilda, who also joined the long march, expressed her pride in her husband's anti-corruption struggle and affirmed her continued support despite his no longer working for the KPK.
"My presence here is not only to pick up my husband home but also to express my pride as I have accompanied him since his days at the police, then the KPK, until his final day from the KPK today," Emilda remarked.
Earlier, the KPK granted an honorable discharge to the 57 KPK investigators who had failed a civic knowledge test and designated September 30, 2021 as their last working day.
The civic knowledge test has become the cause célèbre of the nation's anti-corruption struggle, and some parties have launched protests, calling the test a ploy to target high-profile KPK investigators probing major corruption cases.
On Tuesday (September 28, 2021), National Police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo had expressed his intention to recruit former KPK employees to the National Police Criminal Investigation Unit to strengthen the Corruption Crime Directorate.
General Prabowo said he had conveyed his intention to President Joko Widodo in a letter sent on September 24, 2021. He said the President responded in the affirmative on September 27 and instructed him to coordinate with the relevant ministries for the recruitment process.
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Translator: Benardy F, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
