Govt acts to revive trust in legal system<\/p>\n
Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A joint government team has drawn up an action plan to revive
\npublic confidence in a legal system beset by endemic corruption,
\nbut experts have dismissed the plan as lacking the teeth to
\nenforce sweeping reforms.<\/p>\n
The team, working under the auspices of the Office of the
\nCoordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, has
\ndrawn up a plan to reform the country's laws, judiciary, Attorney
\nGeneral's Office and National Police. A separate plan is aimed at
\nfighting corruption.<\/p>\n
\"It's a short-term action plan covering programs that run
\nuntil 2004,\" said the team's chairwoman, Leila Ratna Komala,
\nduring a discussion with legal experts on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Five government institutions worked on the plan, with funding
\nfrom the Partnership for Governance Reform -- a body that manages
\nfunds from creditor countries supporting government reform
\nprograms.<\/p>\n
The team was made up of representatives from the Supreme
\nCourt, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the National
\nPolice, the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and
\nSecurity Affairs and the National Development Planning Board
\n(Bappenas).<\/p>\n
Leila, who is the deputy for security and political affairs at
\nBappenas, said work on the plan began in January and was
\nscheduled to be completed this year.<\/p>\n
\"By September we hope to obtain the commitment of our legal
\nexecutives,\" she said, referring to the ministers or heads of
\neach institution represented on the team. \"Toward 2004 we expect
\npublic confidence to start to build.\"<\/p>\n
The plan might be the most comprehensive legal reform program
\nthe government has undertaken since the 1998 fall of Soeharto,
\nwhich was followed by an alarming decay of the country's
\njudiciary.<\/p>\n
A visiting United Nations envoy last month called Indonesia's
\njudiciary one of the worst he had seen since taking up his role
\nas a UN rapporteur on judicial independence in 1994.<\/p>\n
Public confidence in the legal system has diminished, a fact
\nthat has been blamed for the rise of street justice and mob
\nkillings over the past few years.<\/p>\n
A rash of controversial verdicts against foreign investors has
\nadded to the pressure from donor countries for judicial reform.<\/p>\n
The draft plan covers five areas of reform, with each outlined
\nin terms of specific activities, targets, output, means of
\nimplementation and monitoring mechanisms.<\/p>\n
Among its recommendations for legislation reform, the team
\nproposed a list of laws, ranked according to priority, to provide
\nthe necessary legal framework to improve the legal system.<\/p>\n
On judicial reform, it proposed regulations to improve the
\ncredibility of verdicts, paying judges higher salaries and
\ntightening the recruitment process for judges.<\/p>\n
On reforming the police, the team urged improved education for
\nofficers and increasing the number of recruits. It said reforms
\nin the Attorney General's Office required a steering committee to
\nimprove the division of authority between the police and Attorney
\nGeneral's Office.<\/p>\n
In the battle against corruption -- seen as the biggest hurdle
\nin reforming the judiciary -- the team suggested inventorying
\nunresolved corruption cases to recoup state losses.<\/p>\n
But several legal experts who took part in the discussion with
\nthe joint government team, said the plan was too weak. They
\nfeared the absence of the political will from the concerned
\ninstitutions would render the plan ineffective.<\/p>\n
Prominent corporate lawyer Kartini Mulyadi said the plan
\nreflected no sense of emergency. She also raised concern over
\nleaving the plan in the hands of the people responsible for the
\ncurrent state of the legal system.<\/p>\n
\"We have here a patient who doesn't admit he is sick,\" she
\nsaid, referring to the institutions that made up the joint team.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said the plan seemed to him to rely
\ntoo much on the bureaucracy for its implementation.<\/p>\n
While Teten Masduki of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW)
\nsaid the team made an incorrect assumptions in thinking the
\ncountry's judiciary could improve by itself.<\/p>\n
Last month the ICW released a study of judicial corruption,
\ndepicting a neat system of a corrupt legal system from the police
\nand prosecutors to judges.<\/p>\n
\"We need something pragmatic, something short term. This
\nprogram isn't workable,\" Teten said.<\/p>\n
Criminologist Adrianus Meliala, who is an adviser to the
\nPartnership for Governance Reform, however, said the program went
\na long way toward getting the five institutions sit together and
\nthink about a comprehensive solution.<\/p>\n
\"It's their program. There is a sense of belonging which we
\nhope will make it work,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/govt-acts-to-revive-trust-in-legal-system-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}