Jakarta – Human rights activists have slammed the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) for deciding to shorten the commission's chairmanship term from two-and-a-half years to one year, accusing the newly-appointed commissioners of having a secret agenda behind its controversial decision.

Komnas HAM had revealed earlier that the commissioners' decided to elect a new leader annually until their terms end in 2017.

The decision sparked protests from a coalition of human rights watchdogs including the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) and Imparsial.

"The coalition rejects the one-year term for Komnas HAM chairmanship and the commission's new code of conduct," the coalition said in a written statement. "We urge the House of Representatives to take an action and summon Komnas HAM commissioners to explain to the public about the new chairmanship term."

Kontras chairman Haris Azhar said on Friday that the decision to cut the chairmanship was suspicious. "The decision to cut the chairmanship [term] indicates that each commissioner carries a political agenda," he told The Jakarta Post.

He suspected that the decision was the result of a political bargaining process between the commissioners and powerful people who were linked to human rights abuse cases, including cases that related to the deprivation of economic rights or gross violations of human rights.

The commission chairmanship is currently held by Otto Nur Abdullah, who was appointed on Nov. 26 last year. Otto had previously explained that there was a need to redefine the meaning of collective collegial leadership in the institution, which many of the commissioners believed was best achieved by shortening the chairmanship term.

One of the commissioners, Dianto Bachriadi, denied accusations of political bargaining, saying that there were problems within the institution's bureaucracy that needed to be fixed.

"There is no such thing as hidden agenda, especially a political agenda behind the decision. The only agenda we have is to fix the chairmanship within the institutions," he told the Post. "We guarantee that our task to defend human rights will not be obstructed even though the chairmanship term is shortened."

Haris said that the argument indicated that the commissioners were not unified and carrying forward their own interests. "It was wrong in the first place to choose these new commissioners who are basically representing different interests. Some of them have no track record in defending human rights," he said. "The commissioners should have been chosen based on their competence."

According to Haris, the new rotation was a waste of time. "The commissioners should spend their time by solving human rights cases, not by hassling themselves by selecting the chairman every year," he said.

The House of Representatives' Commission III on law and human rights is expected to summon Komnas HAM commissioners on Monday. "We will discuss several issues, including the completion of human rights cases over the past months and the change in the commission's code of conducts," Dianto said. (nad)