'House should not have say in selection of Komnas team'

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A minister and others expressed firm opposition to the appointment procedure carried out by the House of Representatives to select members of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, a cofounder of the rights body, said that it was not a good decision to give the House the authority to select the rights body's members because the House was a political institution.

"It has been questioned on whether it is wise to give the authority to the House to conduct a fit and proper test for candidates proposed for the rights body... And I am disappointed by the recent selections made by the House," Hassan during a seminar on the rights body's performance which was sponsored by the U.S.-based Asia Foundation here on Thursday.

The minister said the rights body's performance would depend greatly upon the integrity of its members, and those with excellent qualities should be ensured acceptance through a clean and equitable selection process.

"What we need are rights activists with a strong commitment to upholding human rights. We don't need those who are just supported politically by the House," he said.

The House has been under fire for excluding respected, veteran activists such as Todung Mulya Lubis, Wardah Hafidz and Hendardi from the final list of "suitable" candidates. Komnas Ham proposed 43 candidates and the House approved just over half of those.

The House's decision is believed to have been greatly influenced by the Indonesian Military which is well known for its poor track record on human rights.

"We need a new mechanism to select the rights body's members in the future, to help uphold human rights in the reform era," he said.

Political observer Cornelis Lay, who recently conducted a survey on the credibility of Komnas HAM, said the most urgent problem was how to prevent the commission from turning into a circus of political competition.

He said that the recruitment process was the most pivotal factor to ensure the commission's independence and its members' integrity.

He underlined the fact that during the repressive New Order era, between 1993 and 1997 -- Komnas was founded in 1993 -- they managed to achieve some commendable things despite great opposition, because the members showed extraordinary courage and perseverance.

"Even when Komnas only had a presidential decree as its legal base and faced pressures from the New Order regime, they came up with some good results because the members had integrity," he said.

He said that according to the survey, the right body's credibility had sharply decreased in the last few years as only 13 percent of the people believed the commission were willing to uphold human rights, and that was due to the weak credibility of many current members.

Zoemrotin K. Soesilo, one of the rights body's newly elected 23 members, admitted that the current selection mechanism has a lot of loopholes for political parties in the House to insert their own political interests in carrying out the selection.

"I believe that such a selection has decreased the public's confidence in the rights body," he said.