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Editorial: Public scrutiny matters

The nine-strong, all-women team tasked with selecting candidates for Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leadership posts has completed one of its duties, passing 194 out of 611 people who had registered for the much-anticipated recruitment process

The Jakarta Post
Mon, July 6, 2015

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Editorial: Public scrutiny matters

T

he nine-strong, all-women team tasked with selecting candidates for Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) leadership posts has completed one of its duties, passing 194 out of 611 people who had registered for the much-anticipated recruitment process.

Among those who have fulfilled the administrative requirements and therefore qualify for the competence and paper-writing tests include former Constitutional Court chief Jimly Asshiddiqie, acting KPK deputy chief Johan Budi Sapto Prabowo, anticorruption activist Lucky Djani, and three active police generals '€” Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Yotje Mende, Insp. Gen. Syahrul Mamma and Brig. Gen. Basaria Panjaitan '€” as well as former Military Police commander Maj. Gen. Herdardji Supandji and United Development Party (PPP) politician Ahmad Yani, who is a member of the House of Representatives'€™ Commission III on legan affairs and laws, human rights and security.

We believe the team have done their utmost to shortlist only the best KPK commissioner candidates since they received the mandate from the President last month. The next phases will be more challenging for the team and decisive for the future of the country'€™s drive against corruption.

The variety of candidates who have cleared the first hurdles should give us a lot of hope that the future KPK leaders will build a strong team to win the fight against graft. We, too, can expect the fourth '€œgeneration'€ of KPK will lift the commission out from its crisis of confidence in the aftermath of yet another standoff with the National Police.

From a geographical point of view the candidates represent the diversity of Indonesia as they come from all parts of the archipelago, including from the remote regions of Maluku and Papua. Education-wise, the candidates are intellectually promising as almost a half of them hold master'€™s degrees and a quarter of them have doctorate degrees under their belts.

The only regret is perhaps the fact that there are only 23 women in the list of candidates who will make it to the next selection stage. They include deputy chief of the Witness and Victim Protection Institute (LPSK) Lies Sulistiani and former LPSK member Lili Pintauli Siregar. Since its inception in 2003, the KPK has never had a female commissioner.

Competence and intelligence alone, however, are not enough in the war on entrenched corruption the country is waging. Integrity is the next and in fact the most crucial ingredient to make a tough graft fighter. The selection team may find difficulties in measuring the candidates'€™ integrity, which is why it has called on the public to scrutinize them.

The public has a moral responsibility to help the team trace the candidates'€™ commitment to anticorruption if they want only credible figures to lead the KPK. The selection team has called on the public to send any information related to the candidates to capimkpk.setneg.go.id by Aug. 3.

The public'€™s input will matter when the team will interview the candidates from Aug. 24 to 27 before they come up with the final list to be submitted to the President on Aug. 31. The public'€™s contributions will help the team separate the good apples from the bad.

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