House may lack time to review 10 hopefuls

Observers agree the House will likely miss a key deadline if it insists on reviewing 10 candidates to lead the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

“We see several indications that the House is ‘buying time’ for the process of selecting candidate KPK leaders,” Refky Saputra, a member of the Indonesian Legal Roundtable said on Thursday.

Amid reports of budget corruption that allegedly involve lawmakers, members of five of nine parties represented on House Commission III overseeing legal issues have insisted that the government provide them a list of 10 candidates for final testing.

Rejecting the list of eight candidates previously forwarded by the government, the lawmakers claim that 10 candidates are required under the Law on the KPK.

Antigraft activists said that the House should proceed with the existing list of candidates presented by the government as the KPK needed only four new people to replace its existing leaders whose terms end in December.

A Constitutional Court decision and a Presidential Decree also endorsed the government’s right to forward eight candidates this year due to extenuating circumstances.

Judicial Monitoring Coalition representative Dimas Prasidi said that if the House insisted on 10 candidates it should not consider a replacement for KPK chairman Busyro Muqoddas, whose appointment will end later than his deputies.

Busyro replaced former KPK chairman Antasari Azhar last year, after the latter’s murder conviction.

“There are no reasons for the House to make excuses. The House should be professional,” he said.

A representative from the Legal and Policy Studies Center (PSHK), Siti Maryam Rodja, said it would take too much time if the House insisted on additional candidates, given its deadline to submit a list of four final candidates to the President on Nov. 16.

It would be impossible for the House to consider additional candidates if it intended to be transparent and accountable in selecting the candidates, Siti said.

Members from different political parties on House Commission III had differing opinions on the selection.

Commission members from the Democratic Party, supported by National Awakening Party (PKB), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) are backing the government’s eight-candidate scheme.

M. Nurdin from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PSI-P) said that members would meet with the KPK selection committee on Monday to discuss whether deliberations should proceed with eight or 10 names.

“We are confident that we can have new KPK leaders before the incumbents’ tenures are over,” he said.

Nurdin, who backs the 10-candidate scheme, said he was unsure as to how two additional candidates could be found and evaluated transparently before the deadline.

Tensions between the House and the KPK increased after the KPK questioned four House budget committee leaders about a corruption case at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

Commission member Fahri Hamzah from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) proposed dissolving the KPK, accusing it of abusing its power and claiming it was not democratic.

The House is currently revising the KPK Law, raising concerns it might strip the commission of its principal responsibilities and prosecution power. (rpt)