Ezra Sihite – The newly selected leadership of the national antigraft commission was approved at a plenary session of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, with deposed chairman Busyro Muqoddas conspicuously absent.
Legislators at the meeting agreed to approve the selections made on Friday by House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs and was responsible for appointing new members to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The motion, however, was held up for 40 minutes while the House waited for enough legislators to turn up. At the scheduled start time of 10 a.m., only 120 of the 560 total legislators had arrived. Any resolution at a plenary session requires the attendance of 50 percent plus one legislator, or 281 lawmakers.
When the quorum was finally met, Priyo Budi Santoso, the House deputy speaker overseeing the meeting, passed the motion confirming lawyer Abraham Samad as the new KPK chairman and Bambang Widjojanto, Zulkarnain, Adnan Pandu Praja and Busyro, the former chief, as his deputies.
"We're relieved that the KPK selection process has finally been completed," Priyo told the new commissioners. "To the new KPK leaders, we offer our congratulations."
The event did not pass without some controversy, though, with Busyro not attending or notifying the House of his absence. "Why didn't Busyro show up today?" said Ruhut Sitompul, a Democratic Party legislator and Commission III member.
He added that this was the second time Busyro had done something like that. Last week, Ruhut said, when Busyro was invited by Commission III to attend the vote to pick the KPK chairman, Busyro initially said he could not come, but in the end he showed up.
Ruhut said that despite Busyro choosing not to attend Tuesday's approval, he hoped the other KPK commissioners would get along with the former chairman.
Busyro, who was appointed chairman just a year ago, unexpectedly lost his seat to Abraham, whose own appointment was seen as something of a surprise by antigraft activists and analysts.
On Monday, Ahmad Basarah, a member of Commission III, claimed legislators had not voted for Busyro because they deemed him to be working against political parties.
"Busyro, as chairman of the KPK, fell into the trap of the anti-party movement, as can be seen from his various public statements in which he often attacked the very existence of political parties," Ahmad told the Jakarta Globe in a text message.
"His criticism was no longer constructive and instead tended be like character assassination directed against political parties in Indonesia."
He added that Abraham was the right person to push for regeneration within the KPK because he was young and capable of collaboration. "What the KPK needs now is a young, intellectual figure with a doctorate in law [like Abraham]. He is still young and his idealism is still strong," Ahmad said.
However, speaking at a discussion with Democrat legislators later in the day, Busyro said he did not attend the plenary session because he did not receive an invitation from the House. He also said he had not been feeling well recently and was still feverish and suffering a throat infection.