TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Yogyakarta Anti-Corruption Coalition viewed that four out of eight candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners were associated with the government regime.
“We predicted that part of [the candidates] to be approved by the House of Representatives is associated with the government regime,” Tri Wahyu KH, Indonesia Court Monitoring Coordinator said at the Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Anti-Corruption Studies (Pukat UGM) on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.
According to Tri, the candidates associated with the government regime are Saut Situmorang, an expert staff of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief; Alexander Marwata, an ad hoc judge of the Corruption Court; Brig. Gen. Basaria Panjaitan, an official at the National Police; and Surya Candra, a member of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s campaign team. To other candidates to be selected by the House from the anti-graft commission are Johan Budi SP and Sujonarko.
“The candidates from the KPK are just for formality,” he said.
Earlier during an open interview with the KPK selection team, Saut Situmorang indicated that he would overlook corruption cases that took place in the past, including the Bank Century and the BLBI scandals.
Alexander Marwata was an ad hoc judge of the Corruption Court who offered a dissenting opinion for former Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosyiah, who was involved in corruption cases.
Bansaria Panjaitan is a one-star general at the National Police who refused to report his wealth. Bansaria is also against independent investigators from the KPK and allegedly misunderstands the history and the mission of the anti-graft commission.
Tri added that Surya Candra previously served as a member of Jokowi’s campaign team that might be unable to act independently in eradicating corruption cases.
“We’re questioning his independency,” he said.
Pukat UGM researcher Mada Zaenurrohman added that anti-corruption activists urged Jokowi to postpone the submission of the candidates to the House of Representatives. Mada added that the candidates had questionable integrity and commitment in eradicating corruption cases.
“The names selected and proposed by the KPK selection team are closely related to the government,” he said.
MUH SYAIFULLAH
