Nivell Rayda & Anita Rachman – Five candidates for the Judicial Commission have questionable track records and the House of Representatives must not select them, antigraft watchdogs warned on Monday.

Declining to divulge names, the Coalition for Judiciary Monitoring said there were nominees whose wealth was inexplicably high for people in public office.

"The matter of wealth was mentioned during interviews before the selection committee. Although we noted that the candidates did not provide satisfactory answers, the committee nominated them anyway," Maria Louisa, from the Indonesia Legal Roundtable, said on Monday.

"There is also a potential conflict of interest, as one of the candidates has a relative in the Supreme Court, the very body the commission is supposed to be monitoring. And some of the candidates have never declared their assets as required by law."

Dimas Prasudi, from the Research and Advocacy Center for Judiciary Independence, said: "What we can say is there are two active judges running for the commission – both are problematic."

The two judges are Supreme Court Justice Abbas Said and South Jakarta District Court Judge JMT Simatupang.

A selection committee nominated 14 candidates last week to fill seven seats on the commission, known as the KY, following a series of screening procedures that began in June. The candidates will face the final stage of the selection process before House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs.

Muji Kartikarahayu, deputy chairwoman of the Consortium for National Legal Reform, said the House should reject the nominees with questionable records.

"The fate of the KY, in fact the entire legal system, rests on the House of Representatives to choose only the best of the best," she said. The groups said they would submit their findings to House Commission III. "The selection committee has done an appalling job by nominating these people despite knowing about their track records, so it is up to the House to act on our data," Muji said.

Meanwhile, a House plenary session on Monday decided to discuss revising the law on the Judicial Commission. Tjatur Sapto Edy, deputy chairman of House Commission III, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the revised law would give the commission more authority.

"The crucial revision concerns giving the Judicial Commission the authority to dismiss unethical judges. At the moment, it is the Supreme Court which has the power to dismiss judges; the Judicial Commission just gives recommendations," he said.

"When a judge is proven to have violated the code of ethics, the Judicial Commission can directly dismiss him, without having to wait for the final criminal charge process, as the situation is today."

Tjatur said it would also strengthen the Judicial Commission's monitoring of judges by building local networks. "With the new set of regulations, our Judicial Commission will soon have teeth," he said, adding that House Commission III will discuss the revision in the next two weeks.