When corruption is entrenched and endemic in a country. The establishment of an anticorruption agency (aca) is one of the most recommended anticorruption strategies. While creating an aca is regarded as a stepping stone of the fight against corruption, how to make an aca effective by institutionalizing its law enforcement functions is more critical. This is particularly the case in the early years of a newly created aca. This paper examines the effectiveness of anticorruption law enforcement functions of the kpk, the indonesia’s aca that was created in 2003 and identifies key challenges that lie ahead of the kpk. By adopting key performance indicators, this paper finds that the kpk has been successful in carrying out three-pronged anticorruption strategies—repression, prevention and public relations, which is congruent with strong public support to and trust in the kpk. However, the kpk faces several challenges posed by inherent structural limitations and external political forces that may threaten the efficacy of the commission’s anticorruption functions. While the public has to show continuous strong support to the kpk.. The commission must effectively perform legally mandated and socially expected anticorruption functions with high integrity and discipline in order to become a de facto aca.