In its report released on Monday, Komnas HAM revealed that the organizing of the civic knowledge test, aimed at assessing KPK employees' allegiance to the national ideology of Pancasila, was plagued with “baseless stigmatization” and “illegal conduct”, saying the process failed to uphold human rights.

The findings came after the Indonesian Ombudsman revealed in late July that the organizing of the test was marred with maladministration. This includes mismanagement of the deliberation of an internal KPK regulation, which later became the only document giving a legal basis for the organizing of the test between March and April.

The civic knowledge test — consisting of several stages, namely a written test, profiling and an interview — was officially part of a transition for the independent KPK employees into the state bureaucracy, which was mandated by the revised KPK Law that was passed following a speedy deliberation at the House of Representatives in 2019. The law sets a two-year deadline for all parties to implement the change, which is slated to end this year.

Read also: PDI-P, Komnas HAM at loggerheads over KPK civic test controversy

Komnas HAM member M. Choirul Anam said the rights commission strongly suspected that the civic knowledge test had been used as a pretext to oust KPK employees with certain backgrounds, in particular those who had been labelled as “Taliban” — or Muslim radicals who are opposed to Pancasila.

“The Taliban-labeling within the KPK was deliberately developed and attached to KPK employees with certain backgrounds as part of their identity and certain [religious] practices,” Anam said in a livestreamed news conference on Monday. “The label was also attached to KPK employees who could not be controlled.

The stigmatization of some employees as “Taliban”, Anam noted, could not be justified, both factually and legally, hence the rights commission calling it a human rights violation.

"Stigmatization and labeling of individuals is a serious issue in the context of human rights,” he said.

Read also: Critics say KPK tried to discredit Ombudsman

Moreover, the rights commission also found the type of questions and assessment indicators used in the tests to be largely “discriminatory, hateful, demeaning and not using gender perspective”.

Critics called the civic knowledge test into question because of several controversial questions deemed discriminating against certain ethnic groups and religious beliefs. Among the questions, which were leaked to the public, was whether someone accused of committing blasphemy should be handed the death penalty, whether people from certain ethnic groups were “cruel” and whether they would accept a blood transfusion from a donor of a different religion.

The rights commission also noted that the assessment had carried out “profiling” on a number of employees, not only through social media monitoring but also home visits, as an indication of “covert and illegal conduct”.

Read also: " target="_blank">Civic test should not be used to dismiss KPK employees: Jokowi

Based on its finding, Komnas HAM recommended that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo restore the status of the dismissed KPK employees to then be appointed as civil servants.

“We also recommend the President take over the entire process of organizing the civic knowledge test for KPK employees," Komnas HAM chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said.

The recommendations, he added, followed a Constitutional Court ruling in May, which stated that the status transition must not harm the rights of KPK employees to be appointed as civil servants.

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