Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – A committee responsible for recruiting candidates for the National Commission on Human Rights said Thursday it would seek legal advice from the House of Representatives regarding a public demand for reforms in the commission.

"We'll soon hold a meeting with the House's Commission III to discuss demands for reforms in the human rights commission," the chairman of the selection committee, Soetandyo Wignjosoebroto, told The Jakarta Post, referring to the House commission responsible for legal, judicial, human rights and security issues.

He said there had been demands from both victims of past human rights abuses and a number of human rights and legal institutions that the committee place a limit on the number of terms that commission members could serve.

"Therefore, we'll discuss with the House the demand to limit the commission members' terms in office," he said.

The 1999 Human Rights Law states that a rights commission term is five years and that there is a two-term limit. It also stipulates that the commission is to have 35 members, elected by the House of Representatives and inaugurated by the President.

Soetandyo, who chairs the five-member selection committee, said sections of the public had also asked that the number of commission members be reduced from the current 35.

"We've been receiving suggestions and proposals for the improvement of the rights commission's performance. But it's not our duty to have the law on the rights commission reviewed or amended in order to cater to the demands," he said.

Soetandyo, a sociologist at Surabaya's Airlangga University, said the committee would ask the House Commission to clarify the law's specifics on terms and membership.

"We would like to know whether the figure '35' means that the rights commission will have a fixed membership of 35 persons or if it could be understood that the number of commission members could be less than 35."

As of Thursday, the rights commission had received 165 applications, from a variety of candidates.

They included former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Doctors Association Kartono Mohamad, criminologist Adrianus E. Meliala, historian at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences Asvi Warman Adam, rights activist Ichsan Malik, environmentalist Hira P. Jhamtani, former chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches Natan Setiabudi, former chairman of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference Theophilus Bela, Muslim scholar Lily Zakiyah Munir and recipient of the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award Sarah Lery Mboeik.

Soetandyo said the committee had extended to Jan. 31 the deadline for the submission of applications in order to give the outgoing commission members seeking reelection, the opportunity to submit theirs. Initially the deadline was set at Jan. 20.

Several commission members have submitted applications, including Samsudin, Taheri Noor, MM Billah, Muhammad Habib Chirzin and Sulistijowati Sugondo.