Jakarta – The Freedom of Religion and Beliefs Coalition, which is made up of a number of non-government organisations (NGOs), has revealed several odd questions included in the civics or nationalism test (TWK) given to Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) employees.
According to the Coalition, the questions in the test – the passing of which is a condition for KPK employees to become state civil servants (ASN) – are ridden with problems because they are sexist. Some of the questions highlighted by the group are those about sexual relations involving three people and sex parties (orgy).
"They were asked about their views on free sex. If they answered they didn't have a problem as long it wasn't with children, and in the private sphere, they were then asked, 'what about a threesomes? What about an orgy'?", said the Coalition in an official press release on Monday May 10.
In addition to this, there were also irregular questions about religion such would they be prepared to take of their jilbab (veil) and about marriage.
Meanwhile there were a number of other odd questions revealed by the Coalition such as:
1. Is your ideology neutral or describe what is it? But it was not explained what ideology was being talked about. There were counter questions about what it meant by ideology and the interviewer also did not explain this.
2. Would you be prepared to take off your jilbab? If not, this was said to be egotistical.
3. What Quranic recitations to you follow. Which preacher to idolize/who is your favourite?
4. What do you do on Sundays?
5. Questions about their views on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people.
6. Asked whether they express Christmas greetings.
7. Why are you not married yet? Then they were given a lecture, "Marriage is nice, when you come home tired from work there's a wife to serve you and make a drink, be on standby, and so forth or, "don't choose a lot of marriage partners, I'm just advising you".
8. Questions about blood donations.
The Coalition is of the view that such questions conflict with the 1945 Constitution (UUD 1945), including Article 28E (1) and (2) on freedom of expression.
It also violates Law Number 12/2005 on the Ratification of the International Convent on Civil and Political Rights.
Based on this, the Coalition is demanding that the KPK leadership annul the civics test results and ask the KPK Supervisory Board to immediately question the KPK leadership over its alleged attempt to sideline certain employees through the test.
"The President [must] immediately instruct and ensure that the test results are not used because they are flawed, conflict with the UUD 1945 and human rights", concluded the Coalition.
The Freedom of Religion and Beliefs Coalition is made up of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Amnesty International Indonesia, the Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy and others.
CNN Indonesia has tried to contact KPK Chairperson Firli Bahuri and acting KPK spokesperson Ali Fikri to elicit a response on the issue but as of submitting this report there has been no response from either.
On June 1 the KPK will inaugurate and present letters of appointment as civil servants to those employees who passed the test.
"The NIP [employee identity number] Pertek [technical regulations] from the BKN [State Civil Service Agency], the documents from the KPK. They'll be inaugurated on June 1", said BKN head Bima Haria Wibisana in a written release on Monday.
The KPK received the results of the civic test assessment from the BKN on April 27 and the results were handed over at the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform offices (Kemenpan-RB).
Some 1,349 KPK employees took part in the test in order that they could become state civil servants as regulated under Commission Regulation Number 1/2021 on Procedures for the Transfer of KPK Employees into State Civil Servants.
Out of this total, 1,274 KPK employees were declared to have met the requirements to pass the civics test and become state civil servants. The other 75 employees meanwhile were declared not to have fulfilled the requirements.
There has yet to be any information on the fate of the 75 KPK employees. The KPK is understood to be coordinating with the BKN and the Kemenpan-RB to determine this.
It is also known that in general, the 75 employees are those who are regarded as having made achievements in handling big corruption cases such as senior investigator Novel Baswedan and all of the core leaders of the KPK employees association Wadah Pegawai KPK.
Notes
The civics test or nationalism test (TWK) is part of the administrative process of transforming all KPK employees into civil servants as mandated by the amended KPK law. According to Firli Bahuri, the test aims to ensure employees' allegiance to state ideology Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution and the legitimate government, and to ensure that no KPK employees belong to any government banned organisations. The test involved various intelligence agencies, the National Civil Administrative Agency, the Army and the National Counter-Terrorism Agency. It is widely believed that the test is being used by the KPK leadership to rid itself of employees who have been most outspoken in opposition to the weakening of the KPK.
[Abridged translation by James Balowski. The second part of the article which covered concerns expressed by legislators over the testing process and an explanation of the test assessment by a BKN spokesperson were not translated. The original title of the article was "Koalisi Soroti Kejanggalan Pertanyaan Free Sex di TWK KPK".]
