T

he government, the House of Representatives and the National Police defended on Tuesday the House'€™s authority to assess presidential nominees for National Police chief.

Following the recent controversy over the nomination of National Police Education Division (Lemdikpol) head Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, four plaintiffs '€” constitutional law expert Feri Amsari, anticorruption activists Ade Irawan and Hifdzil Alim and former law and human rights deputy minister Denny Indrayana '€” have petitioned the Constitutional Court to eliminate the House'€™s power to approve police candidates.

The four are challenging several articles in the 2002 Police Law, including Article 11 stipulating that a police chief is appointed and dismissed by the president, pending approval by the House.

The plaintiffs have argued that such provisions limit the president'€™s prerogative and, therefore, violate the Constitution.

Representing the government, Agus Hariadi, a law expert at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, said in a court hearing on Tuesday the House'€™s role in the nomination procedure helped to maintain the checks-and-balances mechanism between the legislative and executive branches of government.

Agus argued that the mechanism prevented the president from misusing his or her powers, adding that the idea to give the House this power dated to 2000, when the National Police was separated from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Sarifuddin Sudding, a People'€™s Conscience (Hanura) Party lawmaker who represented the House in the petitions, concurred with Agus.

'€œPublic monitoring through [the House] is needed to prevent misuse of power,'€ he insisted.

A member of the National Police'€™s legal division, Brig. Gen. Sigit Tri Hardjanto, argued that giving the House such a role prevented the police force being influenced.

'€œConsidering the police'€™s strategic roles, the checks-and-balance system is essential to ensure the force'€™s independence from political interests,'€ he said.

The representatives from the three institutions urged the bench to reject the plaintiffs'€™ demands.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s decision to nominate Budi was criticized by antigraft activists, many of whom believe Jokowi bowed to pressure from political parties in the ruling coalition, particularly the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), given that Budi is a former adjutant to PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri when she was president.

Jokowi annulled Budi'€™s nomination in favor of current police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti. The House is expected to review Badrodin'€™s nomination late this month.

Presiding justice Arief Hidayat adjourned the hearing until April 1 to hear arguments, including from two experts presented by the plaintiffs.