Responding To Dismissal, Novel Baswedan's Wife: There Was An Intentional Removal Of My Husband

Novel Baswedan and his Wife, Rina Emilda (Wardhany Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - Novel Baswedan's wife, Rina Emilda, suspects that there was an intentional act to get rid of her husband as an investigator for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). This was conveyed when she accompanied her husband.

Rina's allegation of eviction was based on a violation that occurred during the National Insight Test Assessment (TWK) process. In that test, the Indonesian Ombudsman and Komnas HAM had indeed stated that there were maladministration and violations of rights.

"The TWK was clearly violated and there was an intentional attempt to get rid of my husband," Rina said during a speech after the dismissal of 58 KPK employees at the KPK Supervisory Board Office, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Thursday, September 30.

She emphasized that she always supports her husband as she has done since Novel was still in the National Police. Rina also said that she was always proud of her husband.

"I pick up proudly because no code of ethics has been violated," he said.

"And I will continue to support the struggle outside the KPK building," added Rina.

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 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 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.