Jakarta – Too many activists in the list of hopefuls for the new National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) leadership was the reason only a few made it through, a lawmaker said Friday.
Trimedya Panjaitan chairs the House of Representatives Commission III responsible for legal and human rights issues and he had just concluded screening the new 11 Komnas HAM members.
He would not provide candidate's details but said it took six days just to agree on the "fit and proper test mechanism".
"If you ask me, I don't have a problem with having too many activists," Trimedya said. "But there were 46 lawmakers and many felt there were too many of them in the list."
Quoting some of his fellow lawmakers, Trimedya said many agreed non-governmental organizations were too judgmental and played "too much at the opinion level". "They also gave baseless arguments and this was a fact many of us in the Commission took note of," he said.
The Commission passed 11 out of a total of 43 candidates. New members have six months to submit 48 other candidates, half of whom are to be picked by the House to meet the mandated 35 Komnas HAM commissioners.
This obligation, said Trimedya, could be annulled if the new members proposed an amendment to keep the number of commissioners small – something the House and observers have agreed on to allow a more effective decision-making process in the body.
Usman Hamid from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the overwhelming concern around this issue by the House was deplorable.
"I wouldn't say activists dominated the list," Usman said. "But that kind of concern shows that an anti-activist stigma lingers. The role activists play in uncovering human rights violations is seen as a threat," he said.
Usman cited a few examples of this stigma during the "fit and proper test" at the House. "Some brought up issues contradicting human rights with nationalism or religion or even Islam," he said.
"There was also a sort of political revenge taken by some lawmakers against candidates who in 2004 held a campaign against crooked politicians."
But he said he appreciated the new 11 commissioners despite being disappointed only one of the 11 candidates was female.
On the future of the Komnas HAM, Trimedya said the new members should have a level of dedication to their new positions greater than that of their predecessors. "The current ones seem to be doing the job only as a side job," he said.
However, Usman noted Komnas HAM's limited power in terms of investigation and prosecution and said he blamed this for continued political intervention.
"If the House really wants to empower Komnas HAM, it should provide (the power to prosecute) instead of the (very limited) inquiry authority Komnas HAM enjoys today," he said.
The House decides whether or not an ad-hoc human rights tribunal should be rolled out for a case. The 1998 Trisakti and Semanggi student shootings did not go to court because the House said there were no elements of human rights violations despite findings by the then-Komnas HAM.