Launching kawalkepakaran.org: Not a Blacklist, an Open-Source Fact-Check of Expert Claims
On 9 October 2026 I am launching kawalkepakaran.org, "Kawal Kepakaran," an open fact-check of the claims of people who offer their expertise to the public. It grows out of abilsudarman.my.id and widens it from one case to any expert. Everything on the site is my opinion and notes, not a court ruling, and every expert named has a right of reply. This post introduces the site, shares its manifesto, and asks you to help build it. It is not a finding about anyone.
What launched
Kawal Kepakaran checks the credentials, track record and evidence behind public claims by experts (pakar). For each claim it gives a verdict, a confidence level, the evidence, and a plain statement of what that evidence does not prove. It is bilingual: Indonesian at kawalkepakaran.org and English at kawalkepakaran.org/en.
The main parts are:
- Experts. One profile per expert: credentials checked, claims tested and any replies.
- Claim checks. Each claim gets one of four verdicts: confirmed, partly confirmed, not supported, or cannot yet be verified.
- Method. How credentials and claims are judged.
- Right of reply. Any expert named can respond, and the reply is published as received.
- Case 001. The first documented case is Abil Sudarman. The articles, evidence and dated timeline from the earlier site are kept under Cases. My launch post for that site explains where the project started.
The manifesto: "Not a Blacklist"
The site opens with a statement from me, published at kawalkepakaran.org/en/manifesto. I reproduce it here because it is the reason the site is built the way it is.
The statement starts from a public thread. On 1 October 2023, Ibrahim Arief wrote on X about a personal "never-hire list." The screenshot below is from the manifesto page.
What the image shows: the first two posts of the thread, including the statement that the list must stay private on legal advice and the encouragement for leaders to keep their own lists. What it does not prove: who the initials or other references in the posts refer to. The image does not mention the Chromebook case, because the thread dates from 2023. A reply from another account below the thread is cropped from the image. See the original thread on X.
The manifesto continues:
On 1 October 2023, Ibrahim Arief wrote on X about a personal "never-hire list", kept as a reminder of profiles never to be considered for hiring. According to the thread, the list stays private on legal advice, and leaders are encouraged to keep their own versions as a duty to the organisations they lead. The thread was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
I am not writing this to dispute anyone's right to choose whom to hire. That is every leader's right. I am writing because the thread shows clearly what I do not want to build.
A hidden list holds power without responsibility. The people on it do not know why, cannot reply, cannot ask for a correction, and no one can check whether the list is right. If every leader keeps a list of their own, small injustices become thousands, invisible and unanswerable.
Kawal Kepakaran takes the opposite road. We test the claims of people who offer their expertise to the public, and everything is open:
- We check claims, not people. What is tested is what is said in public.
- Every verdict names its source. No evidence, no verdict.
- We write what is not proven. Every claim carries its own limits.
- "Cannot yet be verified" is a legitimate verdict, and it is not an accusation.
- Those named have the right to reply. The reply is published as received, unedited.
- Our mistakes can be corrected. The code is open; anyone may send evidence that supports or disputes a claim.
- We do not punish. What we publish is notes and opinion, not a court ruling. The presumption of innocence applies to everyone.
One thing I state because it is relevant. According to Niaga.asia, the Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Ibrahim Arief to 4 years in prison on May 12, 2026 in the Chromebook procurement case, and the Jakarta High Court increased the sentence to 5 years on August 31, 2026. The article does not say whether the ruling is final, so I write "sentenced", not "terpidana" (the Indonesian term for someone whose conviction is final). I do not use the ruling to judge the thread, and I do not use the thread to judge the ruling. The principles above apply the same to anyone. The person named also has the right to reply, and any reply will be published as received.
Our list differs from a blacklist in one decisive way: anyone can read it, dispute it and correct it, including the people on it.
— Rahmat Wibowo, founder of Kawal Kepakaran
Sources cited in the manifesto: the thread by @ibamarief on X, 1 October 2023, and Niaga.asia, 31 August 2026.
Original illustration for this post: the seven commitments, drawn as the difference between a hidden list and an open ledger.
How it is built
The code is public at github.com/rweebs/kawalkepakaran. The site is static: every page is generated ahead of time into plain HTML, so there is no server or database to run. It uses Astro with TypeScript, three.js for the 3D scene on the Bowobharata page (loaded only after a visitor interacts), Markdown and JSON files for content, and Cloudflare for deployment. GitHub Actions runs the tests and the build on every change, and the repository has about 700 automated tests.
The code is under the MIT license. The original written content is under CC BY 4.0. Third-party material, such as evidence screenshots, stays under its owners' terms.
Help me build it
A site that anyone can dispute and correct needs people who actually do. Here is how to take part.
Send evidence, or propose an expert or claim to check. The easiest way is the issue form. Open a new issue and choose Submit a pakar claim or evidence. Evidence can support a claim or dispute it. Corrections and replies use a separate form.
Send a pull request. Add one JSON file under src/content/pakar/ or src/content/klaim/ for a new expert or claim, or under src/content/bukti/ for evidence. The fields are defined in src/lib/schemas.ts. Copy an existing entry to start.
Follow four rules for anything you send:
- Give a checkable source: a link or the origin of the document, and the date a screenshot was taken.
- Mask personal data such as ID numbers, phone numbers, home addresses and data of unrelated people.
- Write two statements: what the image or document shows, and what it does not prove.
- No rumor and no doxxing. Only matters tied to a public claim, and no baseless accusations.
Work on the code. Read the Engineering guide first. You need Node.js 22.
git clone https://github.com/rweebs/kawalkepakaran.git
cd kawalkepakaran
npm ci
npm run dev # live preview at http://localhost:4321
Run npm test && npm run build before you open a pull request. Branch from main, keep one logical change per commit, and keep wording about people hedged ("I allege," "in my opinion"). Please do not change the disclaimer or the right-of-reply text without approval.
Correct me. If something on the site is wrong, use the right of reply page or the corrections form. You can also write to rahmat.wibowo21@gmail.com. A reply is published as received.
The full instructions are in CONTRIBUTING.md. Starring or sharing the repository helps too.
Limits of this post
- The manifesto text is quoted from the site as of 9 October 2026. If the site is corrected later, the site is the version to trust.
- The court rulings are reported as Niaga.asia described them. I have not checked whether the ruling is final.
- The screenshot shows two posts from a thread. It does not show who the initials in it refer to, and it says nothing about any other matter.
- Nothing on Kawal Kepakaran is a legal finding. The presumption of innocence applies to everyone named.
- If anyone named wants to correct or reply to anything on the site or in this post, I will publish the reply in full alongside it.
- This is my opinion and my account. I am not a lawyer, and this post is not legal advice.
#KawalKepakaran #OpenSource #FactChecking #RightOfReply