'Most KPK candidates not credible'

'Most KPK candidates not credible'

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A noted lawyer complained on Thursday that most candidates
applying for executive positions at the Corruption Eradication
Commission (KPK) lacked integrity and a strong commitment to
combating corruption.

Due to the low integrity of most of the aspirants, lawyer
Adnan Buyung Nasution voiced doubt that the KPK would be able to
meet people's expectations in totally combating corruption.

"Many people have filed applications with us in order to be
short-listed as executive members of the KPK.

"Unfortunately, most were merely job-seekers and
some others are pensioners," he said after a meeting with House
of Representatives Commission II for home and legal affairs.

Buyung also added that some applicants had been found to have
applied for positions at other state commissions.

Buyung is the deputy chairman of a committee selecting
candidates for the KPK, a super body on which people had placed
high hopes to combat the most insidious evil in Indonesian
society: Corruption.

As most of the applicants lacked credibility, Buyung voiced
doubts that the selection committee could short-list 10 credible
and high-integrity applicants to sit on the KPK executive board.

He said therefore that the selection committee would propose
any number of candidates it could get to the DPR.

"If, for example, we could only identify three candidates, we
shall still propose them to the DPR. We can't force ourselves to
nominate 10 names if they don't meet our standard. It's about a
moral obligation," he said.

Buyung claimed that the future of Indonesia would lie in the
hands of these people, so the selection committee would not take
any risks in nominating people who lacked credibility or were
unqualified.

However, Commission II chairman A. Teras Narang insisted that
the selection committee must submit the 10 names to the DPR as
required by Law No. 30/2002 on the KPK. The DPR would then
select five of for approval by the President.

"It's not about accepting fewer than 10 candidates or not.
That's what the law says. We don't want to violate the law," he
said after the meeting.

Teras added that the selection committee had to submit the 10
candidates by Dec. 12. The KPK is expected to start its work by
Dec. 27.

Due to the limited time available, Teras said that the DPR
would not conduct a suitability test to select the candidates,
but instead would simply interview them.

"We believe that the selection committee will carry out a
thorough selection process," he said.

The selection committee, which was established only last
month, also had limited time, which has meant it was not able to
carry out a thorough and rigid selection process for KPK
candidates.

The committee has 223 candidates on its list, of a total 513
applicants who passed its first administrative screening stage,
but has only one month left to select the 10 candidates.

Separately, the Society of Indonesian Judiciary Observers
(MAPPI) demanded the selection committee choose candidates who
were clean and had demonstrated strong commitment to combating
corruption.

MAPPI said, in particular, that the committee had to avoid
choosing lawyers who had defended former president Soeharto,
accused of corruption during his 32-year rule.