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.