T

he National Commission on Human Rights’ (Komnas HAM) incumbent commissioners will likely serve longer than their allotted five-year terms because the House of Representatives is not ready to select replacements.

According to Komnas HAM’s chairman, Ifdhal Kasim, extending the term of office for him and his fellow commissioners appears to be the best solution to continuing the work of the commission.

“We have recently discussed the issue with House leaders. As our term of office will end next week, while our successors are yet to be appointed, it seems that extending our tenures will be the best option to allow the commission to work normally,” Ifdhal told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He added that ensuring the commission carried on as normal was important, particularly because it had just recently completed its investigations into three human rights violations: the 1965 purge, the mysterious shootings in the 1980s and the Lapindo mudflow.

“However, it will also be possible to leave the commissioner posts vacant and temporarily give the management to the secretary-general. But, of course, the commission won’t be able to follow up any reports of human rights abuses until the new commissioners are appointed,” he said.

Ifdhal added that a selection committee had picked 30 candidates including Indonesian gay rights activist Dede Oetomo, Komnas HAM’s commissioners Yosep Adi Prasetyo and Nur Kholis, and lawyer Taufik Basari. They will attend a fit and proper test at the House.

According to Ifdhal, the selection committee had submitted the names of those candidates to the House on June 11.

The House was expected to arrange a proper test as soon as possible so that it would have time to select new commissioners before existing ones ended their terms at the end of this month.

The House was in recess during July 15 to Aug. 15 and had another week off for the post-Ramadhan Idul Fitri celebration.

Deputy House Speaker Priyo Budi Santosa previously said the House would propose an extension of the term of the current Komnas HAM commissioners in a House plenary meeting as soon as the House was back in session on Aug. 27.

“I personally think that extensions are the best solution. It will be impossible to immediately arrange a fit and proper test to select commissioners from 30 candidates. Therefore, we will propose to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to issue a presidential decree to allow such extensions,” Priyo told reporters at his office after a meeting with Komnas HAM’s leaders.

Priyo, of the Golkar Party, added that lawmakers would not have enough time for the fit and proper test because the names of the candidates were submitted very late. He claimed he had received a few names days before the meeting.

Lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) denied Priyo’s claim, confirming that her commission had received the names earlier in June, but had not arranged the test due to the commission’s tight schedule approaching the end of the House session.

“The fit and proper test will be among our priorities during upcoming House sessions. We are planning to discuss the arrangement early in September so that we can arrange a fit and proper test for all the 30 candidates in the second week of September. Therefore, I don’t see the urgency to extend the office terms of the current commissioners because I’m sure that the new chairmanship will be appointed next month,” she said.