Commitment of Political Parties Tested

The ethics and morality of political parties are being tested after the Supreme Court ruled that former corruption convicts may be nominated as legislative candidates. Something that is legally permissible is not necessarily ethically correct.

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

The head of legal and public relations at the Supreme Court, Abdullah, briefs reporters on the court\'s ruling on a General Elections Commission (KPU) regulation at the court\'s media center in Jakarta on Monday (17/9/2018). The court granted petitioners\' requests to repeal the KPU regulation, which banned former corruption convicts, drug dealers and those involved in sexual crimes against children, from contesting legislative elections.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — A Supreme Court ruling that opens the door to former corruption convicts being named legislative candidates in the 2019 legislative election must be respected. However, ethical and moral aspects of the issue must also be considered.

With regard to this matter, the Supreme Court ruling will test the commitment of political parties to not support the legislative candidacy of former corruption convicts. This is because corruption in the legislative body has become a very serious problem.

Determination of the final list of candidates for legislative members will be conducted on Thursday (20/9/2018). So far, no former corruption convicts are on the list of preliminary candidates for the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and provincial and city legislative councils (DPRDs) because the General Elections Commission (KPU) had previously banned the candidacy of former convicts of corruption, drug and sexual crimes against children.

After the Supreme Court ruling opened the opportunity for former corruption convicts to become legislative candidates, six out of 10 political parties that currently have seats in the DPR said they would not nominate former corruption convicts. The six parties are the NasDem Party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Four other political parties, namely the Gerindra Party, the Hanura Party, the Democratic Party and the Golkar Party, are waiting for the KPU to respond to the Supreme Court ruling.

Morality

The general chairperson of the central executive board of Muhammadiyah, Haedar Nashir, when contacted from Jakarta on Tuesday, expressed hope that political parties would no longer propose former embezzlers as candidates. "Indonesia\'s problem is not only the law, but also morality. Political parties must take a clear moral position," he said.

Haedar said the Supreme Court ruling must be respected because the law had its own logic. However, in the context of nationality, Haedar said the Supreme Court decision did not represent the interests or spirit of society. Society expects people\'s representatives to be free of moral burdens and track records that could be used as bargaining chips.

A lecturer at the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Franz Magnis-Suseno, pointed out that individuals and political parties had an ethical responsibility to society to not nominate candidates who had been involved in corruption. Something that is legally permissible is not necessarily ethically correct.

The secretary-general of the executive board of Nahdlatul Ulama, Helmy Faishal Zaini, also said that ideally, those contesting elections should be clean figures who do not have problematic track records.

The hope of having clean legislative candidates in elections was also apparent in the results of a Kompas poll in July. From the results of the poll, 75.7 percent of respondents agreed that former corruption convicts should be prohibited from becoming legislative candidates, while 76.9 percent of respondents said they would not vote for former corruption convicts (Kompas, 9/7/2018).

The importance of having clean legislative candidates is also driven home by rampant corruption in the legislative bodies. In the 2004-2017 period, 144 DPR and DPRD members were processed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). This number does not include 41 members of the DPRD in Malang and 38 members of the DPRD in North Sumatra who have been named graft suspects by the KPK this year.

In the latest case, yesterday, Mojokerto Mayor Mas\'ud Yunus was sentenced to four years in prison and fined Rp 250 million or an additional three months in prison for paying Rp 2.3 billion to DPRD members. Of the total Rp 2.3 billion, Rp 1.4 billion had been paid directly by Mas\'ud since 2016 to 22 members of the Mojokerto DPRD. The money was in addition to their official 2016 income.

Stance of political parties

The secretary-general of the NasDem Party, Johnny G, Plate, gave assurances that no former corruption convicts would be proposed as legislative candidates by his party this time around. "We choose to place an integrity pact [not to support the candidacy of former corruption convicts] above the law," he said.

The same claim was made by PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto.

However, the chairman of Commission II at the House of Representatives from the Golkar Party faction, Zainudin Amali, said political parties were waiting for the KPU to respond to the Supreme Court ruling. "We will follow whatever the KPU decides, as long as it is in accordance with the Supreme Court\'s decision, whether it is permissible or not [to restore the legislative candidacy of former corruption convicts who have been dropped]. If the KPU says it is OK, we will also be OK with it," he said.

Meanwhile, the KPU has received a copy of the Supreme Court ruling that does not prohibit former corruption convicts from contesting the 2019 legislative election. Furthermore, the KPU will move quickly, including in revising the KPU regulation in line with the Supreme Court decision.

KPU commissioner Wahyu Setiawan said the KPU would try to work quickly so that the determination of the DPR, DPD, provincial DPRD regency/city DPRD final candidate list (DCT) could be announced on schedule on Sept. 20, 2018. However, he also said that it was possible that the determination of the list would be postponed due to adjusting to the revision of the KPU regulation and to fulfill the technical needs of nominating the candidacy of former corruption convicts.

(GAL/INA/AGE/APA/REK/IAN/NIK/ITA/NTA)