House's role in selecting ambassadors draws criticism

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pressure has been mounting to rethink the House of Representatives' role in selecting ambassadors after legislators declared last week that seven candidates were unfit, leaked their names to the press and voiced an interest in taking up the ambassadorial posts themselves.

"The legislature is going too far and are interfering with the executive's task," political observer Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said on Tuesday.

The selection and appointment of ambassadors, he said, was the President's prerogative.

Article 13 of the amended 1945 Constitution requires the government to "seek the opinion of the House of Representatives" before sending envoys abroad.

In last week's closed-door meeting with the 27 candidates, the House's Commission I, which oversees political affairs, decided that seven candidates were unfit. All are career diplomats.

The decision is non-binding, yet drew criticism anyway, notably for dropping several senior diplomats off the list, and later for leaking the names of those candidates to the press.

Some questioned the House's competence to conduct a "fit-and- proper-test" for candidates who were already screened by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Legislators turned down an ambassadorial candidate to Japan, senior diplomat and ambassador, Abdul Irsan because at age 60 he was deemed too old.

Rezlan Izhar Jenie is in his early 50s, but deemed too young to become Indonesia's permanent representative to the UN in New York, according to them.

Legislators said they wanted Rezlan to take up an ambassadorial post in a country first before aiming for the UN.

Ambassadorial candidates Hardikun Supandar for Algeria and Muniroh for New Zealand were also deemed too old.

The other three candidates were Sri Wahyuni M. Tadjudin for Sri Lanka, Suherman Bon for Syria and Cyprus and Bambang Indrojuwono for Venezuela.

An official at the Foreign Ministry said candidates had their resumes approved during a meeting of echelon I officials.

"Our selection process is tight. If just one of our echelon officers (one rank below the minister) rejects a name then that's pretty much it," he said.

Arbit said the Constitution should be correctly seen as seeking the support of legislators. "The government should be entrusted with doing the fit and proper test and not the other way around."

He further questioned claims by members of Commission I that they were more qualified to become ambassadors than the diplomats.

Arbit added that there should be rules for legislators who evaluate ambassadors, while harboring ambitions for such posts themselves. "There is obviously a conflict of interest."

Yasril Ananta Baharuddin, a Commission I member and former foreign ministry staff member, said that the legislators's task was to submit their views to the government and that was it.

"We only expect the government to listen to our consideration, we are doing what the Constitution demands from us," he said.

Yasril lambasted the critics against his commission's work as failing to understand the Constitution.

He further defended the possibility of a Commission I legislator becoming an ambassador, reasoning the post was a political position and therefore open to every Indonesian citizen.