Yudhoyono defends KPK following House speaker criticism

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 08/01/2011 3:03 PM 

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has rejected a plan to disband the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) proposed by fellow Democratic Party politician and House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie.
“President SBY has repeatedly explained on various occaisions the importance of the KPK,” presidential expert legal staff Denny Indrayana said Monday in Jakarta.
“We still really need a strong and powerful KPK. I assure you that the President will always give the KPK his full support, to help it accomplish its task of creating a cleaner, more corruption-free Indonesia,” he added, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Last week, Marzuki said the KPK should be disbanded, citing graft fugitive Muhammad Nazaruddin’s recent statements implicating the involvement of three KPK deputies in a high-profile graft case.
The commission has named Nazaruddin, the former Democratic Party treasurer, as a suspect in the same case.
Marzuki also said that graft suspects should be pardoned and obliged only to return to the state any funds they had taken.
Yudhoyono is the chief patron of the Democratic Party, while Marzuki his deputy