Camelia Pasandaran & Febriamy Hutapea – Despite a Constitutional Court declaration that the charges against suspended Corruption Eradication Commission deputies Chandra M Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto were trumped up, the fate of the pair remains in limbo.
Speculation is rife that elements within the government are planning to delay any decision on their fate until after Dec. 15, three months after they were declared suspects for alleged abuse of power and extortion, and consequently suspended from their positions.
KPK Law Article 32 states that commissioners must be removed if they have not been able to perform their duties for "more than three months."
Desmond Mahesa, a legislator from the opposition Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), hinted at the ulterior motives of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, which on Thursday failed to discuss a controversial perppu, or government regulation in lieu of law, issued by the president allowing him in the event of a vacancy to temporarily appoint replacements for suspended, dismissed or incapacitated KPK leaders.
"I don't know whether there's a hidden agenda to make the perppu unclear," Desmond said. "If Bibit and Chandra are non-active for three consecutive months, the president will have a reason to fire them."
During Thursday's meeting with Justice Minister Patrialis Akbar, instead of discussing the perppu, the commission debated a Constitutional Court ruling annulling an article in the KPK Law that would have dismissed the pair as soon as they were named defendants in court.
House Commission Chairman Benny K Harman, from the Democratic Party, concluded the meeting prematurely, closing the door for the full House to vote in Tuesday's plenary over whether to accept the perppu. The House goes into recess on Friday and does not reconvene until Jan. 4.
However, constitutional expert Irman Putra Sidin said the perppu had no relevance to Bibit's and Chandra's status. "Lawmakers who think that way fail to understand the law," he said.
Another expert, Refly Harun, also said KPK Law Article 32 only applied to commissioners who were incapacitated and unable to carry out their duties or who do not perform.
Irman said the fate of Chandra and Bibit depended on the AGO, which on Thursday announced it was ready to declare the cases unworthy of trial due to lack of evidence, but has not said when.
"If the AGO delays dropping the case until after three months, Bibit and Chandra might be fired permanently," he said.
Taufik Basari, the lawyer of Bibit and Chandra, said the article of the law was debatable. "In my point of view, the article could not be used against Bibit and Chandra, because it is irrelevant," he said.
On Friday, presidential spokesman Julian Adrian Pasha claimed he was misquoted as saying Yudhoyono was going to issue a decree to reinstate the commissioners.
"What I said was that the president was going to issue a decree to form a working team that will investigate the judicial mafia," he said. "We have not decided whether they are going to be reinstated or if they are going to have other positions."