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f President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo expects to live up to his credentials as a clean figure, he should not hesitate to set the bar high for any candidate to fill the attorney general'€™s post. The President needs to pick someone whose track record rivals that of the late Baharuddin Lopa, the country'€™s respected attorney general whose death in July 2001, less than one month into his term, remains a mystery.

Integrity is the number one priority for the new attorney general, as he or she will lead a law enforcement agency mired in an entrenched corrupt mentality. The classic dichotomy of insider vs outsider is therefore irrelevant; it has always marred the selection of a new chief prosecutor due to the low public confidence in the corps of prosecutors.

Lopa was a career prosecutor, but then president Abdurrahman Wahid had no hesitation in entrusting him given his proven integrity. When Lopa was chief of the South Sulawesi Prosecutor'€™s Office he rejected a generous discount offered by an automotive dealer, which he thought did not make sense.

As Jokowi intends to promote a clean government, his attorney general should be able to translate the President'€™s anti-corruption drive. A fearless, uncompromising figure resembling Lopa would fit the bill. During his brief tenure Lopa sent one of former president Soeharto'€™s cronies, timber businessman Bob Hasan, to the maximum-security Nusakambangan Penitentiary in Central Java.

The new attorney general is expected to work in tandem with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), whose track record in the fight against graft outweighs that of the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO). If possible, the new attorney general can follow in the KPK'€™s footsteps by not exercising the prerogative to drop an investigation.

The power to freeze a criminal investigation is one of the loopholes a government can exploit to protect any of its cronies or loyalists implicated in corruption or other crimes. An attorney general is a tool of the President, who could abuse his power to criminalize his or her political opponents. We hope that Jokowi will avoid such a temptation, given the political landscape at the House of Representatives that favors his opposition.

Another quality of Lopa that Jokowi badly needs to replicate in his attorney general is human-rights awareness. Jokowi is facing mounting pressure to resolve past cases of human-rights abuse that the AGO has consistently refused to investigate despite recommendations from the National Commission on Human Rights.

As Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Purdijatno has revealed, President Jokowi is vetting a number of candidates for the attorney general'€™s post, including Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) chief Muhammad Yusuf, who is a former prosecutor, former law and human rights minister Hamid Awaluddin and junior attorney general for special crimes Widyo Pramono.

If only Lopa was still alive or could be reincarnated, Jokowi would have immediately made up his mind.