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.