Indoneisian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo accepted on Tuesday eight candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner posts, who had been scrutinized by an all-women government-sanctioned selection team.

Credit should go to the team, which started work in June, for completing a tough job that will characterize the future of Indonesia’s fight against corruption.

We believe in the courage and integrity of the team members, who, despite pressures from various quarters, came up with the final eight names from over 500 applicants.

The government’s Goods and Services Procurement Policy Institute head Agus Raharja, Jakarta District Court corruption judge Alexander Marwata, police officer Brig. Gen. Basaria Panjaitan, acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi, Makassar-based Hasanuddin University scholar Laode Muhammad Syarif, State Intelligence Agency (BIN) expert staff member Saut Situmorang, the KPK’s Inter Institutions Cooperation Supervision director Sujanarko and lawyer Surya Tjandra passed the grueling tests and will now join former KPK chief Busyro Muqoddas and law expert Robby Arya Brata on the list of candidates to be submitted to the House of Representatives for approval.

The House, through Commission III overseeing law and human rights, will select five of the candidates through a vote.

It will be a purely political process and so far there has been no proof of backroom deals between politicians or political parties and KPK commissioner candidates given the fact that KPK leaders had the guts to send lawmakers who had elected them.

That’s the beauty of the law enforcement that the KPK has so far performed, which the other law enforcement agencies, the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office, have been unable to rival as yet.

Independence and extra powers entrusted to the KPK have enabled the antigraft body to take measures beyond the police’s and state prosecutors’ limits, hence making a difference in the way the country combats corruption.

It is because of the KPK’s superiority that the selection of its commissioners requires endorsement of the House as the representative of the people.

Provided that this mechanism truly works, the House lawmakers will choose candidates who are committed to corruption eradication without discrimination.

The lawmakers, using all the authority at their disposal, need only to check and crosscheck the track records of the candidates.

They can go to the police, the anti-money laundering institution, corruption watchdogs or even the candidates’ neighbors to make sure only the best are elected as the next KPK commissioners.

Since the standards are clear and measureable, the House lawmakers should never perceive the new lineup of KPK leaders, who will serve from 2015-2019, as a compromise between the KPK and the police force, given the fact that the two institutions have three times been embroiled in conflict.

Indeed there are a police general and three KPK figures on the final list of candidates, but according to the selection team they qualify because of their competence rather than their link to the two institutions.

The House’s choices will eventually represent its support for the war on graft that we have yet to win.

(Asia News Network)