Researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Kurnia Ramadhana urged the selection committee (Pansel KPK) to check, trace, and investigate the track records of each of the 40 KPK leadership candidates and 40 KPK Supervisory Board candidates who passed the competency test.
The successful candidates have diverse work backgrounds, including from the Indonesian National Police, the Attorney General's Office, the Supreme Court (MA), and the internal KPK. He asked the selection committee to coordinate with the supervisory institutions in each of the candidate's institutions to trace the track record of each candidate, not just open a public complaint post.
Of the 40 KPK leadership candidates, Kurnia continued, there are eight candidates from the Police, four from the Attorney General's Office, four from the Supreme Court, and two Deputy Chairmen of the KPK, namely Nurul Ghufron and Johanis Tanak. Regarding the advancement of the two KPK leaders in the selection process, Kurnia hopes that the selection committee will act actively to trace their track records.
“(The selection committee) should not only rely on administrative documents, regarding the verdict, but investigate further, has this person ever been tried? If he has been tried, what emerged in the trial process? Are there any interesting factors that can be used as clues for the selection committee to investigate,” he said.
According to Kurnia, the presence of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) in the selection committee, of course, should not be difficult for the selection committee to study the financial profiles of the 40 KPK leadership candidates and 40 KPK Supervisory Board candidates; to then be compared with data, for example in the State Officials' Wealth Report (LHKPN).
According to Kurnia, there are three LHKPN indicators for prospective KPK and KPK Council leaders, namely honest, reporting annually, and not being late in reporting LHKPN. If one of the three indicators is violated, the selection committee must disqualify the candidate concerned.
Kurnia bluntly said that two KPK commissioners who participated in the selection process, Nurul GHufron and Johanis Tanak, should not have been passed because many parties considered the performance of the KPK for the 2019-2024 period to be poor. The current KPK commissioners are responsible for the negative assessment of the KPK, he added.
Two Ethics Hearings
Member of the KPK Supervisory Board for the 2019-2024 period, Albertina Ho, did not directly answer questions about the suitability of the two current KPK leaders, Nurul Ghufron and Johanis Tanak, who are re-nominating themselves as candidates for KPK leadership for the 2024-2029 period. However, she revealed two ethics trials conducted against Ghufron and Tanak.
Ghufron is currently still in the process of an ethics trial and only the verdict is left. Meanwhile, Tanak has been found not to have violated ethics even though there are differences of opinion about it. Albertina herself said that Tanak violated the KPK leadership code of ethics.
“The one (Nurul Ghufron), we all know is in the process of an ethics (trial). Only the verdict remains. The verdict cannot be read out because the person concerned, on the grounds of his rights as a citizen, has taken three legal remedies,” he said.
Albertina said the three legal efforts that Ghufron is currently pursuing are reporting the chairman and two members of the KPK Supervisory Board to the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency on charges of defamation and abuse of authority. All three are being processed.
Ghufron also sued the KPK Supervisory Board to the Jakarta State Administrative Court (PTUN), the verdict of which will be read out next Tuesday (20/8). Ghufron has also filed a judicial review to the Supreme Court regarding the KPK Supervisory Board regulations and is awaiting the verdict from the Supreme Court.
Albertina admitted that the KPK's performance has been declining day by day in line with various survey results and the Supervisory Board is partly responsible for this. Therefore, she agrees with ICW which considers the track record of each candidate to be the most important element in the selection process for KPK leaders and the Supervisory Board.
As expected by ICW and the wider community, Albertina hopes that the elected KPK leadership and KPK Supervisory Board will have integrity and uphold the code of ethics.
Highest Ethical and Moral Standards
Constitutional Law expert from Andalas University, Feri Amsari, said that the public really wants the KPK leadership to be filled by people who have the highest ethical and moral standards.
He added that there was a Constitutional Court ruling specifically made for Deputy Chairman of the KPK Nurul Ghufron. The ruling stated that one of the requirements to become a KPK leader is to be 50 years old or to have been a KPK leader. According to Feri, only Ghufron has ever been a KPK leader under the age of 50. When he was elected five years ago, he was only 45 years old.
“So the decision is specifically for Mr. Nurul Ghufron. That's how the state opened the opportunity, the red carpet for Mr. Nurul and he wants to (run again). If you look at the history of the KPK leadership, no one has succeeded in the second term and no one wants to (run for) the second term,” he said.
Therefore, Feri agreed that track records are important to ensure whether the KPK is working in the interests of its relations or in the interests of the nation and state. (fw/em)
