Responding To The Constitutional Court's Decision, Novel Baswedan: Constitutional TWK Doesn't Mean Violations Are Justified

KPK investigator Novel Baswedan (Rizky Adytia Pramana/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) senior investigator, Novel Baswedan, said that the National Insight Test (TWK) cannot be a justification for the many violations during the status transfer test process.

The statement was submitted in response to the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) which decided that the test was legal and constitutional, not contrary to the 1945 Constitution.

"Even though the Constitutional Court has decided that the TWK is constitutional, it does not mean that if there is a violation in the TWK process then it is justified, right? By following the logic of the Constitutional Court's decision, the Court only examines the norms, which are tested by the constitution," Novel told reporters quoted on Wednesday, 1 September.

He then explained a number of problems in the TWK of KPK employees from the findings of the Indonesian Ombudsman and Komnas HAM. In addition, Novel also considers the problems that arise in the TWK are clearly different things when juxtaposed with the examination conducted by the Constitutional Court on the TWK.

"From the results of in-depth examinations carried out by ORI and Komnas HAM, it was found that many acts violated the law and human rights, which were carried out with the intention of getting rid of 75 KPK employees. Of course that is a different matter from the examination at the Constitutional Court," Novel said.

"The Constitutional Court's decision is not what we submitted, and what the Constitutional Court decides is the norm, there is no problem with that," he added.

Furthermore, Novel admitted that he still respects the Constitutional Court's decision. However, he still believes that serious violations such as unlawful acts have been carried out in a systematic, covert, and illegal manner that have led to human rights violations.

"Even in the norms, whether in the Law, PP, Perkom, or other regulations, there is not a single legal basis that states there is a process that states pass or fail, or dismissal," said Novel.

As previously reported, the Constitutional Court stated that the process of transferring the status of KPK employees through the national insight test (TWK) did not conflict with the 1945 Constitution so that it remained constitutional.

The decision was taken by nine Constitutional Justices, namely Anwar Usman as Chairman and concurrently member, Aswanto, Arief Hidayat, Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh, Enny Nurbaningsih, Manahan MP Sitompul, Saldi Isra, Suhartoyo, and Wahiduddin Adams, each as members.

The verdict answers the lawsuit Number 34/PUU-XIX/2021 filed by Muh Yusuf Sahide as the Executive Director of KPK Watch Indonesia.