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Judicial Body, House clash over justice candidates
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 11/24/2006 12:30 PM
Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Judicial Commission and House of Representatives are butting heads over the commission's selection of candidates to fill six openings on the Supreme Court.
After recently vetting a pool of potential candidates, the commission submitted six names to the House to fill the vacancies on the Supreme Court.
However, the House says the law requires the commission to submit three candidates for each vacancy. It has thus asked that the commission return to its selection process and come up with 12 more names.
Judicial Commission chief Busyro Muqoddas said Wednesday the commission would comply with the House's request, though he believes it is unnecessary.
""We'll do it. But it should be noted that the House does not have the authority to reject the candidates we recommend,"" he said.
The Supreme Court needs six new justices to replace four judges who will retire by the end of this year and to fill two current vacancies.
The House returned the names of the six candidates to the Judicial Commission on Tuesday, asking that it select another 12 as required by the law.
Busyro said he would revise the justice selection process. Activists have criticized the standards used by the commission to assess candidates' qualifications and personal integrity.
While the House did not set a deadline for the commission to submit the names of the additional 12 candidates, it said it expected the process to be completed as soon as possible.
The commission already spent Rp 2.3 billion selecting the six candidates from a pool of 130 applicants.
""That is, of course, a lot of money. They should realize they are using the taxpayers' money,"" said National Law Commission director J.E. Sahetapy, a critic of the Judicial Commission.
Sahetapy said the Judicial Commission should be required to comply with all aspects of the law governing justice selection, including the requirement that three candidates be proposed for every court vacancy.
""We all know that we should work under the guidelines of the law,"" he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a seminar titled, ""Has the Law Been Abandoned?""
He also suggested the commission be more attentive to public opinion regarding the candidates it selects.
""The commission made a mistake by selecting a controversial candidate,"" he said referring to one of the six candidates, Achmad Ali, who has been named a suspect in a corruption case.
House Deputy Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno said the legislative body would refuse to test and approve the candidates proposed by the Judicial Commission until the required 18 names had been submitted.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan earlier said the court spoke with the Judicial Commission in April 2006 and the commission agreed to select six new justices.
Bagir said the Supreme Court needed four general crime justices, one state administrative justice and one justice from a religious court. ""But of the six candidates, none of them is from a religious court or a state administrative court,"" he said.
