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s a gay candidate was openly taunted by lawmakers, the House of Representatives selected on Monday 13 new members of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Several of the individuals selected by lawmakers on House Commission III overseeing law and human rights lack strong track records on human rights, including Natalius Pigai, a Papua-born civil servant; and Siane Indriani, a former television journalist and the public relations manager of the University of Indonesia.

One of the selected candidates, Maneger Nasution, was singled out for criticism by human rights groups for his previous membership of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

“The MUI has several times challenged the implementation of universal human rights in the country. We are afraid that the MUI will easily promote its biased stance on human rights through its representation [on Komnas HAM],” Haris Azhar of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Haris said he doubted that the House impartially and transparently selected the new commissioners.

While lawmakers gave a pass to Maneger, Natalius and Siane, Commission III members openly humiliated gay candidate Dede Oetomo, bursting into boos and laughter when it was announced that Dede had received a single vote from the 55-member commission.

Dede, the founder of the human rights group GaYa Nusantara, has an international reputation for promoting gay rights.

Other candidates with solid human rights records who were slighted by the House include Ignatius Sandyawan Sumardi, an activist for the urban poor and winner of the Yap Thiam Hien Award in 1996; and Yosep Adi Prasetyo, who was seeking reappointment as a commissioner.

Commission III chairman I Gede Pasek Suardika said that lawmakers made their decision based on the qualities shown by candidates.

“All 30 candidates had their own qualities, and we had to make our choice. All factions in the House voted based on our own preferences after each candidate presented their programs during a ‘fit-and-proper’ test,” said Pasek, a Democratic Party politician said.

Commission III arranged a written test for the candidates on Oct. 11, during which each of them was given an hour to elaborate their thoughts on human rights, which was followed four days later by hour-long interviews with lawmakers.

However, only a handful of Commission III lawmakers attended the interview hearings, which were scheduled for Oct. 19.

Some of the hearings were attended by as few as five lawmakers, especially during the evening.

“We didn’t make the [final] score based on the interviews because only a few of us were present during the sessions. Therefore, the decision was made by voting,” lawmaker Martin Hutabarat of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party said.

Martin also said that the lawmakers’ decisions had been political, given the nature of the House.

In the final tally, Sandrayati Moniaga, an environmental activist and member of the board if trustees of the Institute for Research and Advocacy (Elsam) human rights watchdog, came out on top with 48 votes, followed by Maneger with 45 votes and Natalius with 43 votes.

The other new commissioners appointed by the House on Monday included Imparsial’s Otto Nur Abdullah; Ansori Sinungan, a former official at the Law and Human Rights Ministry; Nahdlatul Ulama deputy secretary-general Muhammad Imdadun Rahmat; and the Desantara Foundation’s Muhammad Nur Khoiron.

Also appointed were Roichatul Aswidah from the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Demos); former Law and Human Rights Ministry official Hafid Abbas, lawyer Siti Noor Laila, Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) member Dianto Bachriadi and incumbent Komnas HAM commissioner Nur Kholis.