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Lawmakers reject all justice candidates
No vote: Members of the House of Representativesâs Commission III vote to confirm the appointment of Supreme Court judicial candidates on Tuesday
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No vote: Members of the House of Representativesâs Commission III vote to confirm the appointment of Supreme Court judicial candidates on Tuesday. The majority of commission members voted to not endorse them. (JP/Jerry Adiguna) (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
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span class="inline inline-none">No vote: Members of the House of Representatives's Commission III vote to confirm the appointment of Supreme Court judicial candidates on Tuesday. The majority of commission members voted to not endorse them. (JP/Jerry Adiguna)
The House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs rejected on Tuesday three Supreme Court justice candidates proposed by the Judicial Commission.
The decision was made only a month after the Constitutional Court scrapped the House's role in the selection process.
The majority of Commission III members rejected the three candidates, the head of Palu High Court in Central Sulawesi, Maria Anna Samiyati; a judge at Makassar High Court in South Sulawesi, Suhardjono; and Supreme Court monitoring unit member Sunarto.
During the vote, Sunarto received five votes, while Maria and Suhardjono got three votes each. To proceed to the next step in the selection process, a candidate must secure at least 25 out of 48 votes in the commission.
Legal analyst Erwin Natosmal blasted the House's move, calling it a bluff and said that it no longer had the authority to reject or accept candidates proposed by the commission.
'There is no logical reason for this, I'd say the House is simply flexing its muscles, in response to the ruling,' said Erwin.
Prior to the ruling, the House had the authority to select one justice out of three candidates that were short-listed by the commission.
Petitioners of the judicial review petition argued that allowing the House to have the authority to select justice candidates would only encourage corruption.
In September last year, several media outlets reported what was believed to be a bribery attempt by a justice candidate to a House member in a toilet on the sidelines of a screening at the House.
The commission later revealed that in 2011, a lawmaker had also offered Rp 1.4 billion (US$114,735) to commission members in return for their endorsement of a certain candidate.
Taufiqurrohman Syahuri, a commissioner for judicial recruitment, said the three 'were the best candidates the commission could find'.
'It is the prerogative of the House. In the commission, we have a set of criteria to shortlist the candidates. We don't know what scoring mechanism the House uses,' he added.
In spite of the commission's claim, the three candidates have in fact failed during screenings at the House on previous occasions. Suhardjono even failed in an interview conducted by the commission in 2012.
Lawmakers, who had previously sought a greater role in the process by trying to amend the 2009 Supreme Court Law, insisted the three candidates 'do not have the credentials to serve as justices'.
'Although the commission has its own selection mechanism, we have proven that it is not sufficient. Don't make your own interpretation of our decision,' said Commission III head Pieter C. Zulkifli from the Democratic Party.
Yet, lawmakers gave no reasons why they rejected the three candidates.
Golkar Party lawmaker Nudirman Munir went further by slamming the Constitutional Court, saying 'the court had gone too far in interfering with the House'.
