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

'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.