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Getting Personal: Candidate Vetting Not Limited to Just Professional Backgrounds
Febriamy Hutapea | August 09, 2011

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Serigala-Berbulu-Domba
10:20pm Aug 9, 2011

One wonders in the event the wife/wives of candidates for Deputy Chairman positions is/are members of the Obedient Wives Club, whether that will be evaluated as being a plus or a minus in the evaluation process.

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The screening process to fill the senior posts of the Corruption Eradication Commission will go deeper than just the vetting of candidates’ professional backgrounds.

It will also investigate their private lives to see whether they practice polygamy or have had extramarital affairs, members of the selection committee said on Monday.

The committee is mulling over candidates to replace four deputy chairmen of the commission, known as the KPK, when their terms end in December.

The screenings for the election have intensified since the KPK has taken a greater interest trying to repair its tainted image. The selection committee is working with several state agencies, including intelligence groups, to investigate candidates’ professional and private lives.

KPK selection committee secretary Achmad Ubbe said practicing polygamy was linked with a certain lifestyle that could trigger controversy.

“Although it’s not a requirement that can disqualify candidates, it’s still important,” Ubbe said.

In addition to ferreting out candidates who practice polygamy, the committee is also investigating whether any candidates had a mistress.

Ubbe said both polygamy and domestic affairs were moral issues. “It’s part of candidates’ track records and will be taken into consideration,” he said.

Priyo Budi Santoso, deputy speaker in the House of Representatives for the Golkar Party, has demanded the committee set a high standard to find the right person for the commissioner posts.

However, a senior politician of Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Fachri Hamzah, questioned whether the measures were being used to eliminate certain candidates.

“They [the selection committee] have to be careful. I don’t want this thing is used as a plot to victimize several candidates,” he said.

This is the first time potential KPK candidates have been investigated thoroughly on a personal level, and Fachri warned the committee not to let any particular political party to use it as a ploy of “political game.”

“I don’t want personal issues to be used to trap someone’s mistake,” he said.

Several PKS leaders have been known to practice polygamous marriages, arguing that since it is allowed in Islam, it is not an immoral practice.

Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin, the deputy chairman of United Development Party (PPP), urged the committee not to use polygamy as the basic measurement to screen the KPK candidates.

“It’s not a fundamental thing [to be considered]. There is no need to make it important,” Lukman said.

Lukman said that capability and capacity of a candidate were more important than considering polygamy, which he called “not a negative issue” — at least, if the polygamy was done correctly.

“Unless they break the existing ruling in practicing polygamy, and if the polygamy is conducted legally, I don’t think it’s a problem,” he said.