House endorses 23 names for Komnas HAM

House endorses 23 names for Komnas HAM

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite increasing public criticism, the House of Representatives
(DPR) endorsed 23 names on Monday for the National Commission on
Human Rights (Komnas HAM) for the 2002-2007 period.

The new members of the rights body who recently passed a fit
and proper test conducted by House Commission II on legal and
home affairs, were endorsed by the House in its plenary session
here on Monday.

The House has been under fire for dropping a number of
dedicated human rights activists proposed by an independent team.
They are, among others, Todung Mulya Lubis, Hendardi and Wardah
Hafidz, coordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC).

Most of the 23 new members are not familiar with the human
rights body and are still inexperienced in handling human rights
issues.

Teras Narang, chairman of House Commission II, admitted that
his commission had no standard criteria in making a selection out
of the 43 candidates proposed by the rights body's team and that
their assessment of the candidates was quite subjective.

During the plenary meeting, legislator Ali Masykur Musa of the
National Awakening Party (PKB) urged fellow legislators to take
public criticism into consideration before endorsing the 23
candidates but gained no positive response from the forum.

Ali questioned the small number of new members since Law No.
39/1999 on human rights stipulates the mandatory number as 35.

Narang ruled out Ali's call, saying his commission conducted
the fit and proper test in accordance with the law.

"It is Komnas HAM's prerogative whether to increase the number
to 35 or not," he said.

Many activists believed that the exclusion of Todung, Hendardi
and Wardah was based on subjective sentiments rather than
objective criteria.

The selection process was not surprising. But, the final
decision was made by voting. Legislators were given the
opportunity to list their preferences up to 35 candidates. Then
all legislators shared their preferences.

Ironically, a candidate like Solahuddin Wahid who gained the
support of 41 legislators has no experience in human rights.

Criticism has been mounting since the House decided to
maintain several members of the rights body known for their
promilitary stance in handling human rights abuses involving
servicemen especially in conflict-ridden regions such as Aceh,
Papua and Maluku.

The rights body has been criticized for its inconsistency in
handling human rights abuses in Jakarta, Papua, Aceh and many
other regions in the past.

Many intellectuals and NGOs have insisted that the members of
the rights body should be rights activists, intellectuals and
independent academics in order to champion human rights in the
reform era.