The election of law professor Eman Suparman and former politico Imam Ansori on Thursday to lead the Judicial Commission is a good step to bolster the troubled watchdog, say observers.
The Judicial Commission (KY) was established to monitor a judiciary that has been widely perceived as corrupt. Legislators are currently deliberating amendments to the law that established the commission to give it more teeth, including the power to punish errant judges.
In two unprecedented moves, the KY's seven commissioners agreed to stage an open vote for commission chairman and stipulated that the new chief would serve for 30 months, or for half of the KY's 2010-2014 session.
Eman received four of seven votes cast on Thursday, while his rival, former Supreme Court justice Abbas Said, received three votes.
Antigraft activists welcomed Eman's election out of dislike for Abbas, whom they agreed was unqualified for the job due to a poor track record.
Abbas was one of several judges who asked the Constitutional Court to scrap part of the Judicial Commission Law that gave the KY authority to monitor judges. The Constitutional Court granted the request in 2006.
Former legislator Imam Anshori Saleh was elected KY deputy chairman.
Asep Rahmat Fajar from the Indonesia Legal Roundtable (ILR) said that he was pleased with the results since neither Eman nor Iman had bad track records but had wanted candidates to present their visions and goals before the KY voted.
"It's good that they decided to make the voting open to public – but it would have been better if they had all presented their visions and goals. The presentations could have been used as a tool to measure and monitor their performance," he told The Jakarta Post.
Incoming KY chairman Eman was a civil law lecturer and later a professor at Padjajaran University in Bandung.
Born in Kuningan, West Java; on April 23, 1959, Eman graduated from Padjajaran University and Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University and was awarded a doctorate in law from Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, in February 2004.
Incoming KY deputy chairman Imam was a legislator for the National Awakening Party (PKB) from 2004 and 2009 and served on the House of Representative's Commission III.
At his inauguration, Eman said that the KY would lobby the House to revise the 2004 Judicial Commission Law to strengthen its mission in monitoring judges.
Former KY chairman and current Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Busyro Muqoddas, came to the election to support his successors.
"They will have to work hard to lobby the House of Representatives to revise the 2004 Law on the Judicial Commission to reinforce the commission's authority to question bad judges," Busyro said.
Busyro said that he believed the pair would work well as a team and would be good leaders for the KY.
"Scholars have good analytical abilities. We need someone to monitor the judicial system from a critical perspective," he said.
Another newly-appointed KY commissioner, Suparman Marzuki, echoed Busyro, saying the presence of a politician would help maintain good relations with the House.
"A scholar-politician duo is good. Imam was a good politician. This is a benefit for the commission as we lobby the House to revise the 2004 law," Suparman said after the event. (ipa)