Agus Triyono & Dessy Sagita – Antigraft activists have urged lawmakers to drop a prosecutor and a retired policeman from the list of leadership candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission as the legislature's final test begins today.
Former Insp. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi and senior prosecutor Zulkarnain were accused of having bad records in the fight against corruption, and several nongovernmental groups said on Sunday that they had strong doubts the two men were competent candidates.
Aryanto had earlier told the selection committee that when he was active as an officer, he also worked as a legal consultant.
"He himself admitted that to the committee some time ago. Even worse, he said that taking money from sources other than [his officer's salary] was normal, while that payment could have been classified as a gratuity," Choky Ramadhan, from the Indonesian Judicial Watch Society (Mappi), said of Aryanto.
Zulkarnain, whose current job is to coordinate expert staff for the attorney general, came under fire because he had failed to report his personal wealth to the state.
"Integrity-wise, Zulkarnain never reports his wealth even though he is a state official," Choky told a news conference co-hosted by Mappi, the Indonesian Legal Roundtable, Indonesia Corruption Watch, the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) and Transparency International Indonesia.
"He has no competence for the job because when he served as the East Java chief prosecutor, he made the Lapindo case very difficult to prosecute and as a result police dropped the case," Choky said.
He referred to the mud volcano in Sidoarjo, East Java, that began in May 2006 and was named after Lapindo Brantas – the Bakrie Group subsidiary initially blamed for the disaster.
Prosecutors have repeatedly rejected the case from police on the grounds that there remained conflicting opinions about whether the mudflow was caused by careless drilling by Lapindo or a major earthquake.
Zainal Arifin Mochtar, a legal expert from Gadjah Mada University, said there was growing concern that political parties were too close to candidates.
"The selection process has been heavy in politics. We will find out [on Monday] if any particular candidates receive special treatment," Zainal said. "Any candidate whose background is troublesome should have been eliminated earlier."
The eight candidates for the antigraft body, known as the KPK, will be questioned by House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, commission chairman Benny K. Harman said.
Other candidates include legal activist and human rights campaigner Bambang Widjojanto, former anti-money laundering agency chairman Yunus Husein, KPK adviser Abdullah Hehamahua, KPK official Handoyo Sudrajat, legal activist Abraham Samad and police commission member Adnan Pandu Praja.
"We want them to focus," Benny said, denying allegations that some candidates were backed by political parties. "As you know, all lawmakers in the House of Representatives are from political parties."