Jakarta – A number of activists from the Civil Society Coalition suspect that the selection of leadership candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission (capim KPK) for 2019-2023 which is currently underway is being manipulated by the government.
Civil Society Coalition member Feri Amsari says that this suspicion can be seen from the steps taken by the KPK selection committee (pansel) to push through candidates who have not fulfilled the stipulations regulated under law such as submitting a State Official Wealth Report (LHKPN).
“If I may speak a little harshly, who knows if indeed the government and the pansel have arranged things in such away, consciously from the start, who the future KPK leaders will be. This means that the selection process is a total manipulation”, said Amsari during a press conference at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) offices in the Central Jakarta suburb of Menteng on Sunday July 28.
According to Amsari, submitting regular LHKPNs is a requirement for all KPK leadership candidates as regulated under Law Number 30/2002 on the KPK.
The KPK leadership selection panel, he said, should have been sharper in paying attention to this by looking at the official KPK website to find out whether a candidate has already submitted regular LHKPN or not.
“They should have known that there are several candidates who have not fulfilled the requirements as a KPK capim. One indication of this is candidates who have not submitted LHKPNs”, he said.
This suspected manipulation, according to Amsari, is strengthened by the fact that Presidential Decree (Keppres) Number 54/P/2019 on the formation of the KPK leadership selection committee still cannot be accessed.
Amsari believes that the government has intentionally kept the formation of the KPK leadership selection committee a secret. He warned that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will be responsible if later problematic candidates get through the selection process.
“If later there are certain problematic figures that get through, we will say that that the president was systematically involved in allowing problematic figures to become KPK leaders, which in the end will make the anti-graft institution unable to run the way it should”, he said.
Responding to this, KPK leadership selection committee Chairperson Yenti Ganarsih asserted that there has been no manipulation in the committee’s selection process. She asked the Civil Society Coalition to provide evidence of the accusation.
“If you’re going to make accusations then provide evidence, what manipulation, what evidence exactly. Make accusations with evidence, how did the government manipulate it, including in the pansel, look for some evidence first”, Ganarsih said to journalists.
Ganarsih claims that the entire process and all stages of the candidate selection were open and conveyed to the media. Thus, she said, there was nothing secrete done during the selection process.
Moreover, Ganarsih again asserted that if there are accusations being made against the selection committee, it must be accompanied by solid evidence. “It’s like this if you want to make accusations provide evidence, where’s the evidence?”, she asked. (mts/ayp)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “LSM Duga Seleksi Capim KPK Hanya Rekayasa”.]
