The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in favor of upholding a civic knowledge test that resulted in the suspension of 57 KPK employees means the marginalized investigators can only avoid final dismissal if Jokowi personally intervenes.

The court held that the test, organized by the KPK between March and April, was an acceptable tool to assess whether the commission’s employees were eligible to have their employment status changed to that of civil servants. But it also noted that the responsibility to follow up on the assessment lay with the government.

"On one hand, the ruling upholds such a test, but on the other hand, it’s nice that the Supreme Court came to a decision rather early, so the President can take a stance on the KPK civics test soon," said Hotman Tambunan, one of the suspended KPK employees.

The ruling came two weeks after the Constitutional Court upheld the test and its application.

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Hotman suggested that another civics test be offered to the 57 KPK employees or that they be appointed civil servants after additional training, just like 18 other employees who failed the test but were offered retraining by the KPK.

Previously, the suspended employees asked the Indonesian Ombudsman and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to investigate accusations that the test had included discriminatory questions and had been developed through improper processes.

Komnas HAM and the Ombudsman later found rights violations and maladministration surrounding the test and its creation. Komnas HAM recommended that Jokowi restore the status of the dismissed employees, allow them to be appointed civil servants and take over the organization of the KPK civic knowledge test.

The recommendations followed a separate Constitutional Court ruling in May that held that the status transition process must not infringe upon the right of KPK employees to be appointed civil servants.

While Jokowi said in May that the test should not be used as grounds to dismiss the employees and called on the KPK to reconsider its decision, he has yet to follow up on Komnas HAM’s recommendations.

“It will not be dignified if the President lets maladministration and human rights violations occur under his administration," Hotman said.

Presidential expert staff member Dini Purwono did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday but said previously that Jokowi was waiting for all the rulings before making any moves regarding the test.

Zaenur Rohman of the Center for Anticorruption Studies at Gadjah Mada University said, "I hope the President stands by his words that the civics test alone should not be used to dismiss KPK employees."

Read also: Civic test should not be used to dismiss KPK employees: Jokowi

The KPK will now process the 57 employees according to the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court rulings upholding the test.

"We expect [inactive employees and activists] to stop disputing the tests. Everyone should accept the rulings,” deputy KPK chairman Nurul Ghufron said in a press statement.

Nurul claimed the Supreme Court had ruled out rights violations and maladministration in the organization of the test.

The ruling made no mention of the findings of Komnas HAM or the Ombudsman.

Zaenur said the Supreme Court had not confirmed or denied misconduct and that, therefore, the KPK leadership "could not use the ruling to justify how they organized and designed the tests".

The inactive KPK employees are waiting for the Central Information Commission (KIP) to issue a ruling on their petition, which requests that the assessment, the decision-making process and the detailed results of the test be made public information.

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