Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairperson Agus Rahardjo says that the panelists and the presidential election campaign teams of incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and rival Prabowo Subianto have agreed not to discuss specific human rights cases during the first presidential debate.

Rahardjo is one of the people who the General Election Commission (KPU) has asked to be a panelist. He said that two other panelists, Bivitri Susanti and Margarito Kamis, along with the presidential candidates, attended the meeting to discuss the agreement.

“There has been an agreement that they are not allowed to talk about cases. So we’re not allowed to cite a specific case”, said Rahardjo at the Ministry of Culture and Education in Jakarta on Wednesday January 9.

“Moreover the biggest human rights case according to our human rights colleagues is, among others, the ‘65 affair [the 1965 anti-communist purge] in which they say as many as 3.5 million Indonesian disappeared. But we won’t be allowed to cite cases”, he said.

The first debate will be held on January 17 and will discuss four topics, namely law enforcement, human rights, corruption and terrorism.

Nevertheless, Rahardjo said that although the panelists will discuss human rights violations, law enforcement, corruption and terrorism, specific cases will not be debated but rather it will be discussed in general terms.

“That there were violations perhaps there will be someone who asks about this but it won’t be specific in character”, he said.

Rahardjo said that all of the questions have been submitted to the KPU but it is not yet know whether the list of questions from the KPK has already been agreed to or not.

In principle, said Rahardjo, the panelists have also agreed that the debate not be used to embarrass the presidential and vice presidential candidates because one of two pairs will later become president and vice president. (cnnindonesia/ags/data2)

[Abridged translation by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “KPK: Debat Capres Tak Boleh Bahas Kasus, Termasuk Kasus HAM”.]

Source: http://waspada.co.id/pemilu/kpk-debat-capres-tak-boleh-bahas-kasus-termasuk-kasus-ham/