House to endorse chief justice candidates
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives is set to formally nominate Muladi and Bagir Manan as the two candidates for the chief justice post at a plenary session on Wednesday.
The nominees' names will then be forwarded to President Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), who will make the final decision on the appointment.
Chairman of the Golkar Party faction in the House, Syamsul Mu'arif, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the House's consultative body (Bamus) on Monday decided to accept the two names selected by Commission II on home and legal affairs, following a fit and proper test on 14 candidate chief justices earlier last week.
"At the Bamus meeting, no faction objected to the candidates selected by Commission II," he said.
The commission has also selected Taufik and Abdurrahman Saleh from among seven candidates as the nominees for the post of deputy chief justice.
Syamsul said he expected unanimous support from the 500-member House because none of the factions had opposed the four names during the consultative meeting.
"In case there are legislators who reject the four candidates, which is legitimate, and propose alternative candidates, we may resort to a vote," Syamsul said. The House also voted for candidates for the post of State Audit Agency (BPK) chief in 1998.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction has threatened to abstain, because it considered the four candidates unsuitable for the key posts in the Supreme Court.
Syamsul said the President is expected to appoint the new chief justice and his deputy early in January.
Asked about his faction's preference, Syamsul said it was the President's prerogative to decide.
"Our faction has given our political support to Muladi's candidacy, but we will accept it if the president appoints Bagir Manan as the new chief justice," he said.
Discretion
Separately, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said that President Abdurrahman Wahid "has discretional power" to pick one from the among the two nominees, meaning that the House's appraisal of the candidates might not matter.
"I haven't heard about the President's decision on the prospective chief justice.
"The President's discretional power doesn't have anything to do with the results of the House appraisal of the nominees. The President can select Bagir Manan -- who was second to Muladi -- or just go along with the House's preference for Muladi," Yusril told the media after the passing of a bill on Intellectual Property Rights at the House of Representatives on Monday.
Previously, the selection of the Supreme Court chief was not conducted through scoring and therefore it was not necessary for the House to appraise the prospective contenders.
"The process of scoring has only just been instituted recently. Therefore, the House has to realize that it is possible for the President to exercise his discretional right," he said.
Yursil would not comment on whether the House insisted on conducting a fit and proper test on the chief justice candidates.
"It's a political matter and I don't want to get involved there," he remarked.
The President has repeatedly shown his preference for Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, who finished behind Bagir in last week's test.
Yusril further said that his office is preparing to undertake a review of Law No. 14/1985 on the Supreme Court in a bid to make significant changes to the procedures for the appointment of chief justice.
"The current law contains lots of loopholes. One of them is that it gives a free hand to the President to pick the chief justice. Hopefully, such a practice could be changed," Yusril said. (rms/edt)