The presence of former police officers and prosecutors in the five top posts at the national antigraft body was not a precedent that the selection committee picking the next leaders should necessarily follow, a former antigraft leader says.
Commenting on widespread public criticism to the presence of former police officers and prosecutors as candidates for leadership roles at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), former KPK deputy chairman Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas said any move to allocate at least one KPK leadership post to a former police officer and another to a former prosecutor should not be accepted.
“We need figures with integrity, no matter their background. There is no article in the 2002 KPK Law stipulating such allocations,” Erry told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
In its brief history, two of the five KPK leaders have always been a former police officer and a former prosecutor. In the beginning, the KPK was led by former police officer Insp. Gen. Taufiequrachman Ruki. One of his deputies was Tumpak Hatorangan Panggabean, a former high-ranking prosecutor.
Erry said Ruki and Tumpak’s background had nothing to do with KPK performance’s during their time there. “All KPK investigators are from the police and all prosecutors are from the Attorney General’s Office. They require the forensic or legal expertise, but it is not necessarily relevant to our job as decision makers,” he said.
After Ruki stepped down in 2007, former West Sumatra chief prosecutor Antasari Azhar was elected KPK chairman and former East Kalimantan Police chief Insp. Gen. (ret.) Bibit Samad Riyanto was elected KPK deputy chairman.
Bibit’s tenure at the KPK ends in December, but Antasari was ousted in 2009 after being convicted in a murder case. Antasari was replaced by former Judicial Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas.
The committee to select the next KPK leaders has narrowed the field to 10 candidates who passed a profile assessment.
Among them is Zulkarnain from the AGO and Aryanto Sutadi from the National Police.
Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Agus Sunaryanto said the KPK would be better off without former police officers or prosecutors leading the institution.
“Given the track record of prosecutors and police, we don’t recommend they make it through to the final eight,” he said Friday in Jakarta.
Agus said ICW was probing the track records of the two candidates and would inform the selection committee of its findings.
Zulkarnain’s track record is unclear and his tenure at the AGO is unknown.
Aryanto, however, has a dubious record at the National Land Agency Board (BPN). After retiring from the force, he was appointed to serve as an assessment and dispute settlement deputy at the BPN.
The Anticorruption and Land Advocay Forum (Fakta) in February filed a report with the KPK
about a land dispute in Cilegon, Banten, which the NGO said reeked of corruption.
In its report, the NGO implicated Aryanto, who they claim abused his power as a BPN official to help a state-owned enterprise illicitly buy 66 hectares of land.
Sumber: The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 08/06/2011 8:00 AM
