Several candidates ‘pose threats’ to Judicial Commission

As the selection process for the new judicial commissioners draws to a close, a watchdog has warned of candidates who “pose serious threats” to the institution that has long been challenged when fulfilling its mandate.

Questionable integrity, indications of past judicial corruption and extraordinary wealth were among the question marks associated with some of the top fourteen candidates that remain in the last phase of the selection process for the Judicial Commission (KY), the Judiciary Watchdog Coalition said Monday.

“There are candidates who would pose serious threats to the Judicial Commission’s ability to carry out its function and authority,” Indonesia Legal Roundtable (ILR) researcher Maria Louisa said. ILR is one of 10 NGOs that make up the Judiciary Watchdog Coalition.

A selection committee for the new judicial commissioners recently submitted to the President the names of people who have made the final selection shortlist.  

The list include supreme justice Abbas Said and the Medan Military Prosecutors Office Chief Advocate Mangasa Manurung.

Eight of 14 candidates are academics. They are Jawahir Thontowi, Suparman Marzuki, Ibrahim, Hemansyah, Taufiqurrohman, Eman Suparman, Hasanuddin and Jaja Ahmad Jayus.

Two public figures, Imam Anshori Saleh and Abdul Ficar Hadjar, judge JMT Simatupang, and advocate-turned-academic Sumali were also included in the candidate’s list.

Through investigation and monitoring of the selection committee’s candidate interviews, the Judiciary Watchdog Coalition found that at least five of the commissioner hopefuls “have issues”, Maria said without offering the names of the “flawed” candidates.

“We cannot name names, but we can give you their backgrounds. There is a retired bureaucrat, an academic who is also a lawyer, and a lawyer with a military background,” she said.

”Two candidates who are judges also have issues,” Dimas Prasidi of the Institute for Assessment and Advocacy of Independent Judiciary (Leip) said, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

The judges have shown indications of past involvement in judicial corruption, ILR member Asep Rahmat Fajar told The Jakarta Post.

“One of them was once reported to the Judicial Commission and the other was reported to the ombudsman,” he said.

There are candidates who have extraordinary wealth not in line with their income as civil servants, even after supplemental income from side jobs that they acknowledged was factored in, the coalition said.

“One candidate said his hobby was golf and that he had people paying for it,” Maria said.

Another candidate may have a conflict of interest if he was chosen for the post because one of his siblings is a judge, she added.

The Judiciary Watchdog Coalition therefore urged lawmakers at the House of Representatives to be prudent when conducting the candidate’s fit and proper tests before selecting the seven new commissioners.