Team 5 should be dismissed: NGO alliance

An alliance of non-governmental organizations, in protest of a government regulation-in-lieu-of-law on the Corruption Eradication Commission, has urged the dismissal of a government-appointed KPK leaders selection team.

"It's better if the team of five is dismissed rather than contribute to the weakening of KPK," Director of Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation, Nurkholis Hidayat told a conference here on Wednesday.

He said the establishment of the team of five, assigned to shortlist candidates to fill vacant positions at the KPK, was not credible so whatever result the team made was also not credible.

The public outcry began when police declared of two KPK deputy chairmen, Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, suspects in an alleged abuse of power over issuance of travel bans to Anggoro Widjojo and Joko S Tjandra – both corruption suspects who are now at large.

The police later threw accusations of bribery at the two deputies, which were supposedly based on a report filed by KPK suspended chief Antasari Azhar, who is now facing trial in a murder case.

With the KPK being led by only two remaining deputy chairmen, president issued a regulation-in-lieu-of-law allowing him to appoint interim leaders of the KPK, a step seen as an effort to intervene in KPK independence.

The president later issued a presidential decree on the establishment of the team of five, which is expected to recommend three names to the president on Thursday.

"The regulation, the decree and team of five is not a solution to this problem," Eriyanto Nugroho of the Indonesian Centre for Law and Policy Studies said, declaring the alliance's objections and rejection of the regulation and all its derivatives.