The Political Nuances of the Constitutional Court’s Decision on the Extension of Firli Cs’ Position at the KPK

ANALYSIS

Indonesian CNN

Friday, May 26 2023 12:14 WIB

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Constitutional Court Decision (MK) extend the term of office of the chairman KPK from four to five years is considered by some parties to have a strong political overtones.

The Constitutional Court granted the entire contents of the lawsuit by the Deputy Chairman of the KPK, Nurul Ghufron. Five of the nine MK judges agreed that the term of office for KPK leaders, which so far is different from the term of office for leaders or members of other independent institutions, has violated the principles of justice, rationality and discrimination.

Because of this, they are of the view that the tenure of the KPK leadership should be equated with the term of office of commissions and other independent institutions, being five years.

MK spokesman Fajar Laksono stated that the decision regarding the lawsuit against the KPK leadership’s term of office being five years was immediately effective. Thus, KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri and friends received an additional term of office of one year until December 2024.

“As stipulated in the Constitutional Court Law, the decision is valid and has binding force since it has been pronounced in the plenary session of pronouncing the decision,” Fajar said CNNIndonesia.comFriday (26/5).

Nurul Ghufron’s lawsuit was filed since October 2022. Initially, he only challenged the age limit for KPK leaders. Later, the petition was added to the matter of extending the term of office. With this ruling, the term of office of the five current KPK leaders will be extended to December 2024 from the original ending in December 2023.

Ghufron said his intention was to extend the term of office of the KPK leadership to adapt it to other institutions.

Constitutional law expert, Denny Indrayana views the Constitutional Court Decision Number 112/PUU-XX/2022 as having a more political nuance to the succession of winning the 2024 Presidential Election. He criticized two substances in the Constitutional Court’s decision, both regarding the extension of the term of office and the age limit for KPK leaders.

Denny said the decision would be retroactive, aka immediately effective from the time the decision was read. Thus, the tenure of KPK leadership Firli Bahuri Cs was extended until December 2024.

Denny suspects that the extension of Firli’s term of office is only to secure a number of cases at the KPK until the 2024 presidential election is over. It is hoped that a number of these cases will not target coalition partners, and instead could target opponents or the opposition.

“If the selection process still has to be carried out at this time, and the KPK leadership takes place in December 2023, then the strategy of making the KPK part of a strategy of embracing friends and hitting opponents has the potential to fall apart,” said Denny in his statement to CNNIndonesia.comThursday (25/5).

He also highlighted another substance in the Constitutional Court’s ruling, namely the matter of the minimum age limit for KPK leaders of 50 years. However, this condition can be waived for incumbents. So, for example, Nurul Ghufron, even though he is not yet 50 years old in the next KPK leadership period, he can still run again because he is currently in office.

According to Denny, this decision only shows the inconsistency of the previous Constitutional Court decisions, that the question of the age requirement was left to the legislators.

“The issue of the minimum age limit is a simpler matter, and only shows inconsistency with previous MK decisions,” said Denny.

On the other hand, the Director of the Center for Constitutional Studies (PUSaKO) Faculty of Law, Andalas University, Feri Amsari, assessed that the Constitutional Court’s decision regarding the term of office of the KPK leadership being 5 years could not apply to Firli Cs.

“It cannot be applied to extend the term of office of the current KPK leadership, because that is tantamount to retroactively enforcing the Constitutional Court’s decision, what is appropriate is to apply it to the KPK leadership in the next period, that is a principle that applies universally, the principle that the law may not be retroactively enforced. ” Ferry said CNNIndonesia.com.

In line with Denny’s, Feri thinks that the decision to extend the KPK leadership’s office is politically laden ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. He is worried that the KPK leadership will only be a tool to beat up the government’s political opponents.

“The KPK leadership has cases that are relatively related to politics to criminalize certain political candidates for the sake of party politics. Extending the current leadership is of course prolonging plans to take issue with certain political cases,” he said.

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