Govt to propose two candidates for KPK leader

Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said Wednesday the government proposed only two candidates to replace the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) acting chairman Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean.

“A selection committee will name two candidates to be proposed to the House of Representatives,” he said in Bandung, West Java, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Patrialis said the committee had yet to be formed, but President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had issued official letter for its formation.

A recent plenary meeting at the House of Representatives decided to defy the regulation-in-lieu-of-law on the acting chairman of the KPK, saying that the regulation was no longer relevant to the current situation at the anticorruption body.

Yudhoyono issued the regulation in regard to the then situation at the KPK where the commission had only two chairmen left, after three chairmen were suspended pending legal charges.

Then KPK chairman Antasari Azhar was suspended because of a murder case in March last year while his two deputies, Bibit Samat Riyanto and Chandra M. Hamzah, were suspended due to an alleged bribery case in mid-2009.

The bribery was never proved and Yudhoyono decided to reinstate Bibit and Chandra to their original positions, while Antasari was sentenced to 18 years in prison for masterminding the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen.