Corruption allegations taint KPK selection
Corruption allegations taint KPK selection
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Undeterred by public allegations of collusion and bribery with
regard to none other than the candidates for the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK), the House of Representatives
decided on Thursday that its members would soon meet the 10
shortlisted KPK candidates.
Chairman of the House Commission II for legal and home
affairs, A. Teras Narang, revealed that five teams consisting of
three legislators each, had been established to investigate
candidates for the anti-graft body.
The 10 finalists are Mohammad Yamin, Marsilam Simandjuntak,
Chairul Imam, Taufiequrachman Ruki, Tumpak H. Panggabean, Momo
Kelana, Iskandar Sonhadji, Sjahruddin Rasul, Erry Riyana
Hardjapamekas and Amien Sunaryadi.
"The legislators will visit the homes of the candidates in
their investigation, which will include a probe into their
personal wealth, on Friday and Saturday," Teras Narang of the
ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) told
reporters.
He claimed that the results of the investigation teams would
be used as consideration in the final screening stage at the
House on Monday and Tuesday.
Commission II members will select the final five candidates
and choose the chairperson with a vote on Tuesday.
The 10 KPK hopefuls met last week with President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, who apparently approved of them all and sent the
list back to the House. The month-long selection process is in
now in its final stages.
Many observers fear that at least two driven anticorruption
figures among the 10 candidates, such as former attorney general
Marsilam Simandjuntak and a member of Transparency International
Indonesia Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, would be dropped from the
list by the legislators, because they have a reputation for
exposing corrupt government officials.
Most of the 10 candidates are former bureaucrats or career
prosecutors whose integrity has been questioned since the
beginning of the selection process.
Meanwhile, deputy chairman of the House Commission II Ferry
Mursyidan Baldan denied that there was collusion between
legislators and KPK candidates.
"The members of these investigation teams are officially
appointed. It will prevent certain legislators from secretly
approaching the candidates (to ask for bribes)," Ferry of the
Golkar Party told reporters.
However, he admitted that members of the investigation teams
were proposed by each political party.
He said the members of the teams could not choose the
candidate to be interviewed, which was an effort to prevent
collusion between them.
"But, anything could still happen. For instance, a
legislator's friend could covertly slip a candidate a bank
account number (for money to be transferred into said account) as
a way for the candidates to bribe the legislators to influence a
vote in favor of their candidacy," he admitted.