Gus Dur misses on key economic post<\/p>\n
President Abdurrahman \"Gus Dur\" Wahid announced the lineup of
\nnew Cabinet on Wednesday. Charles Himawan, a member of the
\nNational Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and professor of
\nlaw at the University of Indonesia, regrets that a junior
\nminister of justice and human rights for economic affairs was not
\nappointed.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government should realize by now that one of
\nits major failures over the past 10 months in rebounding
\nIndonesia's economy is due to the inability of many government
\nlegal officers to grasp the important and determining link
\nbetween implementation of the law and economic activities.<\/p>\n
In the just-completed Cabinet reshuffle, it is regrettable
\nthat Gus Dur did not take the golden opportunity of installing a
\njunior minister of justice and human rights for economic affairs
\nwho would focus his\/her work on economic activities. This would
\nhave brought fresh hope and opportunity to businessmen who wish
\nto participate in rehabilitating Indonesia's economy.<\/p>\n
A junior minister of justice and human rights for economic
\naffairs would have covered the following tasks:<\/p>\n
* Preparing an amendment of one or two articles on the
\nexisting written regulations regarding the power of judges and
\nprosecutors. The idea behind this amendment is to make it
\npossible for the government to appoint noncareer judges and
\nprosecutors to adjudicate cases that are directly and indirectly
\nrelated to economic activities.<\/p>\n
Cases that are directly connected to economic activities are,
\nfor example, the Bank Bali case, several bank cases that relate
\nto misappropriation of people's deposits and state credit and
\nproperty confiscation, whether through bankruptcy procedure or
\nthough ordinary civil law procedure. Most important of all are
\nthe bad debt cases in the hands of the Indonesian Bank
\nRestructuring Agency (IBRA).<\/p>\n
Cases that are not directly connected to economic activities
\nbut have a great economic implications include those that are
\ntainted with collusion, corruption and nepotism. These are, for
\nexample, the cases of former president Soeharto and the State
\nLogistics Agency (Bulog). Also included in this category are the
\nmany social disturbances that are now widespread. People who
\napprehend a suspected burglar and club him to death and street
\nfighting between groups of people would scare businessmen away if
\nthose perpetrators were not punished according to the law.<\/p>\n
* Preparing an amendment on the existing written regulation
\nthat will make it possible (starting from this month) to
\nadjudicate cases that are directly and indirectly related to
\neconomic activities with three judges: One career judge and two
\nad hoc (noncareer) judges. There are still many clean career
\njudges out there, and we still need them to preside over the
\nadjudication process because of their experience and technical
\nknowledge in presiding over cases.<\/p>\n
* Preparing an amendment on the existing written regulation
\nthat makes it possible for a district court to hand down a
\ndecision by a majority vote among the three judges. However, the
\npresiding judge does not have a determining vote or a kind of
\nveto. The value of his vote is similar to that of the other two
\njudges. And most importantly, it should be made possible for the
\nminority judge to write down his dissenting opinion.<\/p>\n
* Preparing the necessary amendment on the existing written
\nregulation covering a similar possibility for ad hoc judges for
\nthe Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The is important to
\nensure that the decision of the District Court remains reliable.
\nIf the judiciary is reliable and if in the future the case
\nagainst former president Soeharto is dismissed, perhaps people
\nwould readily accept it on the grounds that all possible reliable
\nlegal means had been exhausted (common international law jargon).<\/p>\n
* Determining that the Jakarta District Court will be made a
\nkind of pilot project in order to monitor the strength and
\nweakness of the above suggested drastic changes before this
\njudiciary restructuring could be carried out throughout the
\nnation.<\/p>\n
* Acting as a liaison between the government and the business
\nworld so that the bitter experience of the businessmen in terms
\nof law implementation could be accommodated and necessary action
\ncould be effected to rectify the grievances.<\/p>\n
Since the work of this proposed junior minister of justice and
\nhuman rights for economic affairs would be so encompassing, it
\nwould be impossible to \"downgrade\" the work to a level of a
\ndirector general, as some have suggested. The work of this junior
\nminister would cover not only economic activities per se, but it
\nalso envelope ordinary civil action, criminal acts and, as we can
\nsee from the above, amending written regulations. Perhaps the
\nwork would even cover the constitutional law threshold, for
\nexample, preparing the implementation of regulations of Article
\n33 of Indonesia's Constitution of 1945 regarding economic
\nactivities that these written rules may become business-friendly.<\/p>\n
Those are the work plans of the proposed junior minister of
\njustice and human rights for economic affairs for the coming
\nyear. If all these could be effected, a flicker of hope for a
\nrebound in Indonesia's economy could be felt within the coming
\nyear or two. This plan of work for the medium- and long-term
\nwould naturally be different and require further and deeper
\nthought. For example, amending the written regulations on the
\nSupreme Court, so that in future the number of Supreme Court
\njustices would be limited to about nine or 15, would take at
\nleast 10 years. A similar timeframe might also be needed if we
\nwant to limit the kind of cases that could be brought before the
\nSupreme Court. This is contrary to the present practice that
\nallows every case to be brought before the Supreme Court.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/gus-dur-misses-on-key-economic-post-1447893297",
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