Recruiting external legislative candidates could open the way to improve the political environment against the temptation of massive political corruption in legislative and executive institutions.
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·4 minutes read
Kompas/Hendra A Setyawan
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JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Recruiting external legislative candidates could open the way for political parties to improve the political environment against the temptation of massive political corruption in legislative and executive institutions. Ironically, however, the parties have not taken the opportunity to clean up their act with a breakthrough in repairing the candidacy system.
At the same time, a number of House of Representatives (DPR) lawmakers have started to reject the General Elections Commission’s (KPU) plan to prohibit former corruption convicts from being nominted as legislative candidates, claiming that it had no legal jurisdiction.
In reality, as KPU member Wahyu Setiawan said on Wednesday (4/4/2018) at the KPU’s Jakarta headquarters, the plan to include the ban in the KPU Regulation on Legislative Candidates was decided at a plenary meeting because the commission recognized corruption as an extraordinary crime that could incur widespread damage. The moral intention behind the planned ban was to enable political parties to choose the best eligible cadres for the people and to educate voters to choose representatives who had good track records.
This intention is important, because legislative corruption continues to recur using relatively similar methods, such as bribery in deliberating the draft regional budget. In the latest such case, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) named 33 members and former members of North Sumatra Legislative Council (DPRD) as suspects. [I believe this figure was 38 in yesterday’s Kompas report.]
The provision that corruption convicts shall be prohibited from running as a legislative candidate is not included in the requirements regulated in Law No. 7/2017 on the General Elections. Article 240, Letter g of Law No. 7/2017 only stipulates that legislative candidates should not have been convicted under a binding verdict for a criminal offense punishable by a minimum sentence of five years, unless they publicly declared their status as a former convict.
House Commission II vice chairman Mardani Ali Sera, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction, warned that the draft KPU regulation could not contradict the contents of Law No. 7/2017 (Kompas, 3/4/2018).
However, according to Constitutional and Electoral Reform founder Hadar Nafis Gumay, the KPU could still include the ineligibility of former corruption convicts to stand as legislative candidates in the KPU regulation. This was because corruption was classed as an extraordinary crime, and not as a general crime. "It is simply a shame that the House appears to reject this," said Hadar.
On Thursday, the KPU will conduct a public test on its planned prohibition against former corruption convicts in the legislative election. Article 8, Paragraph 1, Letter J in the draft KPU regulation stipulates that a legislative candidate cannot have been convicted of "drug trafficking, sexual crimes against children or corruption".
Overwhelmed
Central Executive Board chairman Andreas Pareira of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the party had been actively trying to recruit prospective external candidates by referring to their track records. Prospective legislative candidates with legal issues or potential legal issues would be automatically dropped from the party’s candidacy list.
However, Pareira acknowledged that in reality, strict and careful recruitment of external candidates could not be applied at all levels of the institutional hierarchy. The candidate recruitment process at the central or provincial level was generally more thorough, but not so at the regency or municipal level.
"During the selection process, we interview the [prospective] legislative candidates and ask them whether they had [legal] problems or not, had potential problems or not? But, in reality, not all [prospective candidates] are honest and open, especially at the regency/city level," he said.
Meanwhile, Pareira said, the PDI-P was overwhelmed with checking the potential legal problems of its legislative candidates one by one. "The best [way] is for the KPK, if it sees any potential [legal] problems, to immediately tell the party as a preventive measure," he said.
United Development Party (PPP) vice chairman Reni Marlinawati shared a similar view. She said that not all cadres who were connected to corruption cases had a bad track record. There were those who were clean and possessed integrity when they were recruited. However, after entering politics, the existing system led them toward the temptation for corruption.
Meanwhile, the party was unlikely to monitor every movement of every cadre. "What the party can do is to be firm in dismissing a cadre who has been proved corrupt. That is the party’s mechanism and commitment," she said.
