Adianto Simamora
Jakarta, Saturday, September 26,2009
Members of the government-appointed Team 5 and the remaining leadership of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Friday jointly agreed that the nominees for the body’s interim leadership should be experienced candidates who can jump their new responsibilities without hesitation.
Team member Widodo AS said KPK deputies Haryono Umar and Muhammad Jasin were both supportive of Team 5’s eforts and that both shared similiar visions on the criteria for nominees.
“They provided some very useful input. We welcome their contributions.” According to Widodo one of the most important aspects raised was the need for candidates to be independent, have integrity and to be able to “tune-in” quickly to the demands of the job.
Widodo and other Team 5 members such as Adnan Buyung Nasution and Todung Mulya Lubis both said they could not rely on a regular recruitment process due to severe time constraints.
“In this short time we have to do quite a bit of talent scouting,” Adnan Buyung said.
Todung said the Team 5 was trying to engage with as many stakeholders as possible.
“There have been a lot of proposals. Text messages coming in almost continuously. On my cellphone there must be 100 names [for candidates] already,” he remarked.
Widodo said other criteria that the Team 5 had agreed upon was that the nominee should not have a “psychological obstacle” vis-a-vis the two suspended deputy chairman’s who were now under police custody.
He added that the three nominees eventually put forward should ideally be individuals who would be “acceptable to the general public at large”.
Widodo further lamented public speculation that Team 5 was merely created to impose the authority of the executive government over the KPK.
He strongly denied such impreddions and insisted that the team had the full autonomy to nominate people whom they believed could best fill this importants post.
Previously, the team met with remaining KPK leaders M. Jasin and Haryono Umar to collaborate in proposing nominees to fill the vacant posts at the commission. Widodo, also coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said that the KPK’s suggestions were valuable in executing its duties to select qualified interim KPK leaders.
“Their views are valuable input for us in executing our duties,” he told reporters after the meeting.
KPK deputy chairman for prevention M Jasin said he and Umar recommended that the interim leaders should come from the KPK internal staff.
“People in the KPK were recruited using a merit system; they have integrity and are professional in their work. Besides, we will someone from inside our circle.”
He also suggested one of interim leaders could be elected from former KPK leaders. “If the proposal was accepted, it would help us to carry out our tasks in overcoming the crisis condition as we are waiting for the legal process against Bibit and Chandra.”
Chandra Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, suspected of abusing their power. Suspended KPK chief Antasari Azhar is facing murder charges.
Jasin said that as a government institution, the KPK could not disapprove of the government regulation in lieu-of-law (perppu) stipulating the establisment of the team.
Team 5 was scheduled to meet with law experts on Saturday afternoon.