Govt told to improve KPU selection

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 11/08/2007 5:21 PM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legal experts have asked the government to modify the mechanism for selecting state officials in order to achieve good governance.

Gayus Lumbuun, a member of the House of Representative's Commission III, suggested perfecting the implementation of the ""fit and proper"" test approach to selecting candidates for official positions in order to make the process more transparent.

Gayus said that as representatives of the people, the House should conduct the fit and proper test and must include public opinion in the process.

""The House's function is to perform its legislative tasks, including to conduct the fit and proper test for recruiting qualified and professional state officials. Meanwhile, the public are expected to give their opinion on whether the selection of a candidate should be continued or stopped,"" said Gayus.

""In this era of transparency, the public must be involved directly in the government's authority,"" he said.

Syamsul Bahri, a General Elections Commission member who was selected through the test, was allegedly involved in a corruption case surrounding the establishment of an industrial plantation complex in Malang, East Java.

The committee reportedly ignored warnings from the public about Syamsul's bad track record.

During the discussion, both Jeirry Sumampouw, the coordinator of the National People's Voters Education Network and Saldi Isra, a lecturer of from Andalas University, West Sumatra, pointed out the need to standardize the selection mechanism so that all candidates for official positions would meet the expectations of the public.

""A general standard is not available. The selection committees often are not focused when asking the questions. They seem to conduct the test as a formality only,"" Jeirry said.

Saldi said that the committee should set the standard for the test.

Saldi also said the voting system should be based on one person with one voice and one score only.

""We will apply this new voting system to break the chain of collusion,"" said Saldi. (rff)

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.