JAKARTA. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delayed on Monday a meeting to receive the final two candidates for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), raising concerns that he may handpick a candidate of his own.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry has appointed a selection committee to choose a new commissioner for the KPK to replace deputy chairman Busyro Muqoddas, whose tenure ends later this year.

The selection committee singled out two of the six candidates during an interview session on Thursday.

The team has kept the names of the two candidates confidential until they have been approved by Yudhoyono, who will recommend them to the House of Representatives to undergo screening, the final stage of the selection process.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Emerson Yuntho said Yudhoyono could be buying time by delaying the meeting with the team “as it is likely that the two people picked by the team are not favored by Yudhoyono”.

Emerson urged Yudhoyono to accept whichever candidates were recommended by the independent team and not intervene in the team’s selection.

“We feel that there is a short of mechanism [in which the President] wants to make sure that his Democratic Party and his family members are untouchable by the KPK in the future after he steps down as president,” said Emerson.

Yudhoyono and his ruling Democratic Party is closely linked to the 2008 Bank Century bailout, which cost the state more than Rp 7 trillion, while his youngest son Edhie “Ibas” Baskoro has been implicated in a number of graft cases handled by the antigraft body.

The remaining six candidates that underwent interviews on Thursday are incumbent Busyro, head of international relations at the State Secretariat Roby Arya Brata, former Tempo daily journalist Ahmad Taufik, former member of Regional Representatives Council (DPD) I Wayan Sudirta, lecturer at Pelita Harapan University Jamin Ginting and Subagio, a budget planning specialist at the KPK.

Sudirta, a lawyer, was a coordinator for the coalition that supported president-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, in the July presidential election. Backed by Jokowi’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Sudirta once ran for Karanganyar regent in Bali.

Taufik’s wife is an active member of the United Development Party (PPP).

As a member of the State Secretariat, Roby is an aide to Yudhoyono for foreign policy.

The selection committee’s secretary, Ahmad Ubbe, defended Yudhoyono, saying “there is no such thing as Pak President disliking the two recommended candidates,” adding that the President had yet to know who the two candidates were.

Ahmad explained that as the President was busy with his Monday agenda, which necessitated the meeting to be rescheduled to another day, adding that the team had yet to hear from the State Palace when the next meeting would take place.

“We have enough time to meet with the President until the day before Oct. 20, his last day at office. We have not heard anything about when the meeting will happen,” Ahmad said, adding that the committee would not announce the names of the two candidates until it had met with Yudhoyono.

Separately, Law and Human Rights Ministry Amir Syamsuddin backed Ahmad’s claims, adding that “the two candidates are the best figures that the team has selected”. (Haeril Halim, Ina Parlina)

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie