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rofessionals and bureaucrats are dominating the latest results in the selection for commissioners of the Financial Services Authority (OJK), a financial monitoring super-body that many suspect will have a major political impact once it is finally established.

The OJK selection committee announced on Wednesday that it had short-listed 38 of 87 candidates based on profile assessments conducted by an independent consultant that analyzed their competencies and personalities.

Most of the 38 candidates are prominent bureaucrats or former state officials, such as Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) head Nurhaida, central bank deputy governor Muliaman Hadad, former Corruption Eradication Commission deputy chairman Chandra M. Hamzah, Gadjah Mada University economist and former Finance Ministry fiscal policy head Anggito Abimanyu and former Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) chief Yunus Husein.

These individuals will participate in the third phase selection, which is a medical examination. There are nine commissioner posts available on the OJK, with two automatically allocated to representatives of the Finance Ministry and Bank Indonesia. Each of the remaining seven posts will be contested by three individuals, making a total of 21 individuals to be screened by House of Representatives Commission XI on finance and banking.

Economist Dradjad Wibowo, who is also a former Commission XI legislator, said that the latest results in some ways confirmed the suspicion of financial industry stakeholders and politicians that pre-arranged choices had been made during the OJK selection process.

“As of now, there is a growing concern that the OJK commissioner candidates will be dominated by certain groups, especially professionals, and are affiliated with the [Finance Ministry],” Dradjad told The Jakarta Post via text message.

Dradjad also said that ideal OJK commissioners would be those with not only technical capabilities in the banking and finance sector but also with strong leadership and an understanding of politics.

“Any decision in the financial sector always poses serious political impacts. For example, a bailout decision for a bank is very political because the funds for this would come from the state. Victims of financial industry fraud usually report their complaints to the House and this is also very political,” he said.

“So, there is a hope the OJK leadership will not be very technocrat. The commissioners must not play politics, but at the same time, they must not close their eyes to the various political impacts in the financial sector,” he added.

Separately, one House Commission XI member who insisted on anonymity, said that political preferences would play a major part during the screening phase for the OJK commissioner posts.

“Chandra and Yunus will not be selected by the House because politicians do not like them,” the source said, referring to previous incidents when lawmakers expressed disdain for Chandra’s leadership at the KPK and Yunus at the PPATK.

However, one deputy chairman on Commission XI, Harry Azhar Azis from the Golkar Party, said there would be no special treatment or bias toward Chandra and Yunus because legislators would use three indicators to determine the best individuals for the OJK job.

“We will check their track records, their competence and leadership,” he said.