President Jokowi Is Said To Still Be The Savior Of Novel Baswedan Et Al At The KPK

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Photo: Setkab)

JAKARTA - Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Choirul Anam assessed that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) was not too late to resolve the polemic on the National Insight Test Assessment (TWK) which resulted in the dismissal of 57 employees of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

He even said that the findings of rights violations in the test and his agency's recommendations could be Jokowi's foothold in solving the problem.

"The president is still authorized and can take steps to resolve the KPK TWK issue. Komnas HAM findings and recommendations can still be used as stepping stones for this step," Anam told reporters quoted on Friday, September 17.

He said Komnas HAM agreed that the decisions of the Constitutional Court (MK) and the Supreme Court (MA) must be respected. However, the decisions of the two institutions and their findings and recommendations cannot legally be compared.

Thus, the factual findings and recommendations of Komnas HAM remain independent and are not affected by the two decisions. Moreover, continued Anam, his party has never questioned the norms related to the transfer of status which is the subject of the two decisions, namely Perkom KPK Number 1 of 2021.

In addition, he also considered that the envoy did not touch the factual findings and recommendations of Komnas HAM or did not take the findings and recommendations as one of the considerations in making decisions.

"Thus, in the process it can be seen that there is no connection at all," said Anam.

For this reason, he is of the opinion that President Jokowi's decision to use Komnas HAM's recommendations as a basis while still respecting the decisions of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court regarding norms can still be taken. This, said Anam, is even a form of constitutional state governance.

Moreover, the fact of the violation in the test which is a condition for the transfer of the status of a KPK employee needs to be followed up.

"The existence of human rights violations in the implementation of the TWK is important to be followed up according to the recommendations of the National Commission on Human Rights by the President," he said.

For information, Komnas HAM has issued a number of recommendations, including proposing Jokowi to take over the KPK TWK assessment. Moreover, in their findings there were a number of violations and the test was suspected to get rid of a number of employees.

It was previously reported that 57 employees can no longer work at the KPK because they cannot become ASN according to the mandate of the KPK Law Number 19 of 2019. These employees include senior KPK investigators Novel Baswedan and Ambarita Damanik, Chairman of the KPK Employee Forum Yudi Purnomo, KPK investigator Harun Al-Rashid, as well as dozens of other names.

The anti-corruption commission argued that their inability to become ASN was not due to laws and regulations such as Perkom KPK Number 1 of 2021, but because of the results of their assessment.

Not only that, the KPK also ensures that employees have been given the same opportunity even though they have passed the age limit or have stopped being ASN before.