Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto recently clarified what he meant by pardoning people engaged in graft, saying that all he wanted was for the criminals to return the money that they had stolen.

During an overseas trip earlier this month, Prabowo told Indonesian students in Egypt that he was planning to pardon graft convicts who return the stolen state assets. The corruption amnesty proposal immediately sparked reactions from both experts and politicians. Former chief legal affairs minister Mohammad Mahfud MD even warned that such lenience could lead to a serious blunder.

Speaking before a nationwide Christmas event in Jakarta, Prabowo told the crowd that he had no intention of letting the graft convicts not take responsibility for their actions.

“Someone says that ‘Prabowo wants to forgive graft convicts. That’s not the case. What if he wants to repent? So do repent, but return what you have stolen! Hell no, these people can get away without returning the stolen assets,”  Prabowo said on Saturday evening as the crowd broke into laughter.

"It is not that I want to forgive the corruption offenders. No, that's not it. I just want to wake them up. Those who have already sinned, please repent. Isn't that part of the religious teachings? Don't you feel sorry for the people? Please return the stolen assets before we look for them [their wealth]," he said.

Habiburrokhman, the deputy chairman of Prabowo’s Gerindra Party, recently also tried to set the record straight by saying that the president’s earlier statement in Egypt focused on maximizing asset recovery.

Indonesia scored 34 on the Corruption Perceptions Index as of 2023. The index ranks the everyday people's perception of public corruption in a country on a scale of 0-100. The lower the score, the worse the corruption. To this day, Indonesian lawmakers have also yet to pass the much-awaited assets forfeiture bill into law.

Since rising to power in October, Prabowo has made promises here and there that he would be tough on corrupt politicians. He had also told the top brass of American businesses to “directly report to him” if they ever encountered any corruption when trying to invest in Indonesia.