T

he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has decided to drop its controversial policy banning homosexuals and transgender people from becoming its employees following a protest note from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

The AGO, which is now looking for new employees, including prosecutors, announced earlier this month that one of the requirements to join the institution is that applicants “do not have a mental illness, including people with abnormal sexual orientation and transgenders.”

The Komnas HAM condemned the AGO for issuing such a policy, calling it a form of discrimination.

The commission argued that according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Diagnostic Classification on Mental Disorder Guidelines (PPDGJ) III year 1987, homosexuality was not a mental illness.

“Such a policy should not be used by any state institutions, including the AGO,” Komnas HAM commissioner Muhammad Nurkhoiron said on Tuesday.

He said that the policy contradicted the 1945 Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right to work in state institutions regardless of their sexual orientations or gender identity.

Komnas HAM called on ministries and state institutions, especially the AGO, not to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, Nurkhoiron said.

The AGO swiftly responded to Komnas HAM’s criticism by removing the policy from its employment requirements.

Yuni Daru, an AGO official, said they decided to change the requirements because there was an objection from Komnas HAM that had demanded that they treat all applicants equally.

“We have changed it, so now they [the LGBT community] are allowed [to apply],” Yuni told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Yuni said that the requirement was initially made because the AGO needed bold individuals to serve for the institution.

“In the work, they will encounter things such as murder and corruption, the AGO needs assertive employees,” she added.

Contacted separately, State Civilian Bureaucracy Commission (KASN) deputy chairman, Irham Dilmy, said that the 2014 State Civil Apparatus stipulated that recruitment of new civil servants should be based on merit.

The law also mentioned that it should not be discriminatory. Civil servant candidates can only be distinguished based on their qualifications, competency, track record and performance.

“They cannot be differentiated based on other aspects. If there are other institutions that set such requirements, it means they have violated the law,” Irham said.

Lini Zurlia, an activist with Arus Pelangi, an LGBT rights group, said that they appreciated the Komnas HAM for speaking out against the AGO for setting such a discriminatory policy.

Lini, however, said she was doubtful that the AGO was serious about its claim that it had dropped the policy.

Komnas HAM said it had received a letter from the AGO saying that it would drop the controversial policy, but as of Wednesday evening, it had not yet been removed from the AGO’s website at rekrutmen.kejaksaan.go.id.

Indonesia has seen a rise in anti-LGBT sentiment in recent years, due to rising conservatism and a more assertive pro-LGBT campaign.

A survey on tolerance carried out by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) in November 2016 found that from 1,000 respondents, 16.6 percent cited the LGBT community as the group they disliked the most, second after the Islamic State (IS) group with 25.5 percent.

A similar survey by the Wahid Foundation last year also revealed that the LGBT community was the minority most disliked by Indonesian Muslims, who account for nearly 90 percent of the country’s population.

The survey said that 26.1 percent of 1,520 Muslim respondents nationwide disliked LGBT people, while 16.7 percent of them disliked communists.