Chief justice selection takes a new turn
JAKARTA (JP): The month-long dispute on the chief justice selection took a new turn as the House of Representatives has decided to return the matter to House Commission II on Legal and Home Affairs.
House Speaker Akbar Tandjung said on Thursday that the House Consultative Body (Bamus) had decided that the selection of the chief justice be reexamined by Commission II to find a solution to the long-standing impasse with President Abdurrahman Wahid.
"It was decided on Wednesday evening that they (Bamus) will let Commission II reexamine the selection of the chief justice. And the results will be discussed in the House plenary session," Akbar said.
He said the House would likely stick with the two names nominated earlier by Commission II, although several factions wanted a new selection.
The dispute developed after members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) walked out during the plenary session on Dec. 7, when former justice minister Muladi and legal expert Bagir Manan were officially nominated as chief justice candidates.
Muladi served as justice minister in the last Cabinet of former president Soeharto and remained in the post under Soeharto's successor, B.J. Habibie.
Bagir Manan, a law professor at the state Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, also served Soeharto as a director general of the justice ministry in the 1990s.
Abdurrahman has rejected both nominees claiming that both candidates were known to be loyal to the New Order regime and to be partisan. He then gave the mandate to appoint the chief justice to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
But, Megawati turned down the President's mandate and returned the responsibility to him.
Akbar, also Golkar chairman, said House leaders could not have further discussions with the President over the matter as the latter has maintained his stance and refused to discuss it further.
When asked whether he regretted Abdurrahman's move to refuse Muladi, who happens to be a Golkar cadre, Akbar said he regretted the President had rejected the two candidates.
"I am not sorry because pak Muladi will not get the position, but I regret the President's decision to refuse to choose one of the two candidates," he said.
Meanwhile, political analyst Ichlasul Amal of the Yogyakarta- based Gadjah Mada University suggested that the chief justice be elected by the Supreme Court justices themselves.
"If the President's rejection of the two candidates is legal, then when will this (dispute) end? I suggest that the chief justice be elected by the justices themselves," he told reporters after inaugurating the university's medical center here on Wednesday.
Ichlasul said that since the posts of chief and deputy chief justice were not politically influential, the President and the House should let the justices elect the chief justice among themselves, without any outside influence.
Ichlasul, also rector of the university, said Abdurrahman's rejection to the two candidates was understandable as many people could not accept either candidate.
On the other hand, he said the two candidates had legal and political "legitimacy" because they had passed the fit and proper test by the House. (44/dja)