D

uring a weeklong fit and proper test period for the 14 commissioner candidates for the Financial Service Authorities (OJK), it became increasingly apparent that candidates with preferential political ties to major power factors gunning for influential positions were less concerned about competence rather than overall capacity to do the do the job.

House of Representatives banking and finance commission members, who are in charge of conducting the test to net seven commissioners, preferred to ask candidates about their personal political stance and alleged alliances rather than going deeper into their future visions and missions in the OJK.

For example, Dolfie OFP, a legislator representing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) tirelessly questioned candidates on their personal stance regarding the substance of the Financial System Safety Net (JPSK) regulation-in-lieu-of-law, in which policy makers are given immunity to take any necessary course of action
during crisis.

History shows that PDI-P, however, along with several other parties, once blamed that the immunity given under the JPSK regulation had enabled a number of senior government officials work free passes from their mistakes in providing the controversial bailout for the Bank Century bailout saga.

They said that the government financial authorities had violated the law because they used the JPSK regulation as a legal basis to bail out Bank Century despite the fact that the House had rejected the regulation.

Regardless of what happened in the past with the JPSK regulation, the fact is that now the government has submitted to the House a new JPSK bill to be deliberated into law. In the new bill, the immunity stipulation has been taken out, making Dolfie’s questions appear somewhat irrelevant, if not useless.

Instead of using the fit and proper test period as an instrument to probe each candidate’s competency and integrity in the financial sector, legislators also used it as a stage to throw away personal accusations towards candidates that had unfavorable history with the House.

One such candidate was Yunus Husein, the former chairman of the Financial Transactions Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK). When Yunus was being tested, legislators took no time to tell him that they believed he was not a suitable candidate for the OJK commissioner post due to his close relationship with a certain political party.

In the past, Yunus was well known for his firm stance of opposing the House if he was instructed to take actions that might break the law. For instance, Yunus refused to open the PPATK data on the Bank Century bail out for the
House because such materials, based on the PPATK law, could only be given to law enforcers. The data, according to numerous legislators at the Bank Century special committee, contained information that might implicate the Democratic Party.

Candidate Nurhaida, who is currently the head of the Capital Market and Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK), was also under fire by legislators, who said that they believed she was a dishonest person based on an integrity report compiled by the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

One of the commission deputy chairmen, Zulkieflimansyah from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said that he could not comprehend why some of his colleague’s preferred to inquire personal-related questions rather than competency-related questions used in BIN data as a basis to judge a candidate’s competency.

“BIN data on integrity is highly questionable. How can someone be deemed as dishonest or having a lack of integrity because he or she has a luxurious house? Having a luxurious house is completely irrelevant with integrity,” Zulkieflimansyah said.

While the composition of the OJK commissioner board remains unclear, the candidacy of Muliaman Hadad, a Bank Indonesia deputy governor, for the chairmanship seems to be unstoppable.

Zulkieflimansyah and his deputy chairman colleague, Golkar Party’s Harry Azhar Azis, said that Muliaman had a good chance to become the OJK chairman because legislators saw him as a better candidate due to his relatively young age compared to his rival, Achjar Iljas.

Muliaman was born in 1960, while Achjar was born in 1948. Achjar was a Bank Indonesia deputy governor during the leadership of Syahril Sabirin.

Other then the OJK chairman position, financial stakeholders’ eyes are also set on who will chair the banking and stock market executive commissioner posts.

Riswinandhi, the current Bank Mandiri deputy president director, and Rahmat Waluyanto, the finance ministry’s debt management agency head, are respectively said to be the favorites to become the directors of the banking and the stock market sectors.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Danang Widoyoko said that at the end of the day, the composition of the OJK commissioner board would be based on a political compromise between parties.

“The basis of the selection will be where candidates can serve their [political parties] interests because the OJK will be in charge as an authority on all financial institutions,” Danang told The Jakarta Post.

The OJK is a financial superbody, set to take all of the monitoring authorities from Bank Indonesia and Bapepam-LK as late as 2014.

The total worth of the financial sector that the OJK will monitor is around Rp 7,700 trillion.

The names of the individuals selected to commission the OJK will be announced on June 19.