Jakarta – The 2019 selection of candidate state civil servants (CPNS) has created a polemic related to a special requirement which is being applied by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) that applicants not have a deviant sexual orientation.
Quoting from the AGO website 'https://rekrutmen.kejaksaan.go.id/, applicants cannot be color blind, either partially or fully, not suffer from physical disabilities and not suffer mental disabilities, including deviant sexual orientation and deviant behaviour (transgender).
The additional condition has attracted criticism. Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat) Director Ricky Gunawan believes that the government has a hatred and fear of homosexuals. Yet the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses.
Likewise, the 1993 Ministry of Health Mental Illness Diagnosis and Categorisation Guide has also removed homosexuality as a mental illness.
“The condition of recruitment (for a CPNS) which does not accept LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people) is a discriminative requirement”, said Gunawan.
Recruiting and placing a person in a certain work function, he continued, should be based on competency. “Rejecting a person for a job just because of sexual orientation or gender identity is a form of direct discrimination”, he asserted.
Article 26 Paragraph 2 of the 1945 Constitution (UUD 1945) states that all citizens have the right to employment and a decent livelihood as human beings. In addition to this, Article 38 Paragraphs 1 to 4 of Law Number 39/1999 on Human Rights regulates the right of all people to employment.
Government response
Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (Men PAN-RB), Tjahjo Kumolo, says that the formulations of recruitment requirements are up to the respective government institutions. This is because Men PAN-RB Regulation Number 23/2019 on the Criteria for the Acquisition of CPNS does not stipulate specific requirements.
“Usually, the considerations (by government institution) are based on the type of position or type of job”, said Kumolo.
In relation to other specific requirements, he suggested enquiring with the recruitment committees of the respective institutions in order to ascertain with certainty what is behind the considerations of these special requirements.
Kumolo said however that in relation to conditions which are viewed as being detrimental to people suffering disabilities, his ministry plans to issue a circular on Monday November 18 to all government institutions to look into and review these requirements.
State Civil Service Agency Public Relations Bureau Acting Head Paryono meanwhile revealed that there was a discussion between ministries and state institutions at the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry related to this condition. He admitted however that he did not attend the meeting. “There’s been no update on the [meeting’s] conclusions”, he said.
The government will open applications for 254,173 CPNS and Government Employees with Work Contracts (PPPK) this year.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “LGBT Tidak Boleh Jadi Pelamar CPNS Kejaksaan”.]
Source: https://www.jawapos.com/nasional/17/11/2019/lgbt-tidak-boleh-jadi-pelamar-cpns-kejaksaan/
