Responding To The Dismissal Of Novel Baswedan Et Al, Saut Situmorang: There Is Uncertainty But Unfortunately The President Is Silent

JAKARTA - Former Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Saut Situmorang regretted the attitude of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) who seemed silent about the fate of Novel Baswedan et al. He was officially dismissed today due to the failure of the National Insight Test (TWK).

Saut even made an analogy that the uncertainty experienced by 58 KPK employees at the hands of President Jokowi was worse than the current uncertainty. So, he regretted the silence of the former Governor of DKI Jakarta.

"Just as there is uncertainty in this republic, unfortunately the president just keeps quiet and says it's none of my business," Saut said in an oration after the dismissal of 58 KPK employees at the KPK Supervisory Board Office, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Thursday, September 30.

Whereas corruption and handling in the field of law is one part of the work of a President as head of state. So, Jokowi's current attitude actually raises questions.

"Whose business is it to eradicate corruption? It is the president's responsibility. So if he says it's not my business, then what's your business? That's right," he said.

Saut also stated that it would be a big lie if someone or a public official said that the KPK was fine. Because, what is happening now is just the opposite.

"If someone says that today's eradication of corruption is going on the right path, that person must be lying. In fact, we are still seeing the behavior from the bottom up until now," said Saut.

"Then there are good people over 70 trying to do good, straightening those unrighteous paths, then he suffers the same fate," he added.

It was previously reported that 58 employees were declared unable to work at the KPK because they could not become ASN according to the mandate of the KPK Law Number 19 of 2019 as of the end of September. The employees include senior KPK investigators Novel Baswedan and Ambarita Damanik, Chairman of the KPK Employee Forum Yudi Purnomo, KPK investigator Harun Al-Rasyid, and dozens of other names.

The KPK argues that their inability to become ASN is not because of laws and regulations such as the KPK Perkom Number 1 of 2021 but because of the results of their TWK assessment. Not only that, the KPK also ensures that employees have been given the same opportunities even if they have passed the age limit or have stopped being ASN.

However, the decision caused a polemic considering the discovery of a number of maladministration and abuse of authority in the TWK process by the Indonesian Ombudsman. Not only that, Komnas HAM also found violations of 11 employees' rights.

Thus, this is a polemic because the KPK and the State Civil Service Agency (BKN) do not want to follow up on corrective actions or recommendations issued by the Indonesian Ombudsman and Komnas HAM, respectively.

In addition, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is also silent on the recommendations that have been given by the two institutions and has argued that he does not want to be withdrawn in institutional matters.