NGOs demand more facts about KPTPK candidates

NGOs demand more facts about KPTPK candidates

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) criticized the
government on Wednesday for its failure to promote transparency
in selecting candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission
(KPTPK), a powerful body tasked with fighting corruption.

The NGOs particularly lamented the fact that the public had
little information about the 223 applicants passing the first,
administrative screening, making it almost impossible for the
public to make any comments or suggestions.

"Transparency is a must as the first principle of clean
governance. The recent announcement of 223 candidates for members
and executives of KPTPK -- which contains only the name and
address of each candidate -- is still far from what the public
expects to know," Aris Purnomo Jaya from the Indonesian
Corruption Watch (ICW) told a press conference on Wednesday.

"The government must reveal their track record, their vision
and mission, and even their tax payer registration number (NPWP)
so that the public will know whether or not their income is
equivalent to their profession," Aris said.

The press conference was jointly called by several other NGOs,
including the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), the
Consortium for National Law Reform (KRHN), the Institute for the
Study of Democracy and Human Rights (Demos), and the Jakarta
Legal Aid Foundation (LBH).

The NGOs suggested that the lack of transparency would only
close access to public participation in selecting the candidates
and "it becomes vulnerable to politicking by certain parties."

The selection committee led by Romli Atmasasmita, who is also
head of the National Law Development Board (BPHN) at the justice
and human rights ministry, announced on Sunday that a total of
223 of 513 people seeking seats in the KPTPK met the
administrative requirements and passed the first screening stage.

The aspirants will undergo selection tests and public scrutiny
from Oct. 27 through Nov. 26, according to Ramli, as he
encouraged the public to offer inputs and opinions about the
candidates.

The committee, nevertheless, only attached the name, address,
latest profession, date of birth and academic background of the
hundreds of candidates.

Those who passed the administrative screening included the
chairman of Transparency International Indonesia (TII), Erry
Riyana Hardjapamekas, Partnership for Governance Reform activist
Bambang Widjojanto, former justice minister Marsilam Simanjuntak,
lawyer Indra Sahnun Lubis, and retired police officer Insp. Gen.
(ret) Momo Kelana.

The selection committee had only 57 days to establish the
commission with 20 of these spent on registration. The committee
will select 10 candidates to sit on the KPTPK executive board
after they have first been screened for their credibility,
integrity and track record.

The team will have to submit the names of 10 candidates by
Dec. 5 to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who will select five
and submit them to the House of Representatives for approval
within three months.

The commission is expected to have started its work by Dec.
27.

"If the public do not have knowledge about the candidates,
what does the selection committee expect other than to create an
anticorruption body that is full of politicking," Aris said.