JAKARTA (VOA) —
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) found at least 12 former corruption convicts on the Provisional Candidate List (DCS) for legislative candidates (bacaleg) announced by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on 19 August 2023.
The Bacaleg, formerly convicted of corruption, is running for the 2024 general election at the levels of the People’s Representative Council (DPR), Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD) and Regional Representative Council (DPD). They come from various political parties.
According to ICW researchers, Kurnia Ramadhana has proven that political parties are still giving the red carpet to former corruption convicts. ICW regrets that the KPU’s attitude seems to be covering up because they have not announced their legal status.
Kurnia said that the absence of an announcement on the status of corruption convicts in DCS would certainly make it difficult for the public to provide maximum input on DCS. Moreover, information regarding the curriculum vitae of prospective candidates is also not disclosed on the KPU website.
“If in the end, the former corruption convicts pass and are assigned to the Final Candidate List (DCT), of course the probability that the public will vote for candidates who are clean and with integrity will be even smaller,” Kurnia emphasized.
According to Kurnia, the current situation is different from what happened in the 2019 election. At that time, the KPU, he added, was actually very progressive because it announced a list of names of candidates with status as former corruption convicts. This means that the steps taken by the current election organizers are a setback and have no commitment to anti-corruption and are increasingly showing a lack of good faith to uphold the principles of holding elections that are open and accountable.
For this reason, said Kurnia, his agency urged the KPU to immediately announce the name of the legislative candidates, both at the city/regency DPRD, provincial, DPR RI and DPD RI levels who have status as former corruptors.
Basariah Panjaitan (Left), Deputy Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission, sits with KPK officials and evidence in the form of money worth more than $560,000, which was confiscated from the office of a DPR member ahead of the 2019 Election. (Photo: AFP)
Disclosure of information about the names of the legislative candidates who have corrupt status is also wanted by a number of people VOA met.
Nadia, one of them. This student of a tertiary institution in Jakarta said that information about the curriculum vitae of prospective legislative candidates is very important for the public in selecting people to represent them in parliament.
“We don’t want to have people’s representatives who have used people’s money,” said the 23-year-old woman.
The same thing was also expressed by Mardiono. The 55-year-old Bekasi resident hopes that the KPU will immediately provide clear information about the names of candidates with the status of former corruptors.
“I hope the KPU will provide clear information about this, don’t cover it up,” said Mardiono.
KPU member, Idham Holik stated that new curriculum vitae would be opened when determining the final list of candidates in November. According to Idham, the KPU will ask permission from prospective candidates through political parties to publish their curriculum vitae to the public.
In this case, the KPU views the curriculum vitae as information that is exempt in accordance with Article 17 letter h of Law Number 14 of 2008 concerning Public Information Disclosure. In order to announce the candidate profiles, the KPU must first obtain permission from political parties, he said.
“Furthermore, on November 4 2023, when we announce the DCT, we will ask candidates for members of the DPR and legislative candidates in general throughout Indonesia to publish their curriculum vitae with the approval of the candidates concerned,” explained Idham.
Furthermore, Idham explained, in the 2019 election there were only 49.5 percent of candidates for the DPR RI who wanted to announce their curriculum vitae. In the upcoming 2024 election, he added, it is hoped that there will be an increase in prospective candidates who want to open their curriculum vitae. (fw/ft)
