The Cheerleading Squad for Supreme Court Justice Candidates
The House of Representatives approved the Supreme Court justice and ad hoc judge candidates proposed by the Judicial Commission.
On August 7, 2026, at a plenary meeting of the Judicial Commission (KY), Setyawan Hartono chose to present a dissenting opinion. The commission was reviewing the names of Supreme Court justice candidates who had successfully completed the final stage, namely interview tests, and would be moving forward to the fit-and-proper hearings in the House of Representatives (DPR).
The KY had recently concluded the interview tests as the final stage of their selection process for Supreme Court justice candidates. Setyawan criticized the answers provided by two of the names approved by his colleagues, stating that they were unsatisfactory. This decision was grounded in his responsibility to the public, as shared with Tempo on August 18.
Interestingly, Hartono was not the only KY commissioner to reject candidates. Fredrik Willem Saija, another KY commissioner who had previously served as a judge, also declined to approve two of the candidates under consideration. Wilson believed that their interview responses suggested they were not yet qualified to be nominated as Supreme Court justices.
He proceeded to compare these candidates with another individual who was already a judge at a high court. In his view, this judge was more suitable for the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court. However, this candidate had unfortunately failed the interview test. According to Willem, their extensive experience and professional background in the legal field were superior to those of the other candidates.
Written by urgent.news from Tempo.co English's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
