Legal system must adapt to changing environment: Try<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian legal system must adapt to the
\nrapidly changing environment to answer the challenges of the
\ntime, Vice President Try Sutrisno said yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"The dynamic development of our society, which has been
\nundergoing rapid changes in the political, economic and
\nsociocultural fields clearly necessitates an equally rapid
\nadjustment to the national legal system,\" Try said in an address
\nto a national coordinating meeting of the Ministry of Justice.<\/p>\n
\"In an era that is changing at a geometrical pace, it is
\nimpossible for us to deal with these changes if our (legal)
\nsystem is moving at an arithmetical pace,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Officials have acknowledged that many Indonesian laws, some
\ninherited from the Dutch colonial administration, have become
\noutdated with the changing environment.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives meanwhile is poorly equipped to
\ndraft, debate and enact bills. Every bill that has passed through
\nthe House in the past 30 years was initiated by the government.<\/p>\n
Chairman of the Agency for the Development of National Law
\nSoenaryati Haryono said that by 2004 the country needs to enact
\nor reform at least 167 laws. \"We can enact between 12 to 15 laws
\na year,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Legal experts say many of the recent economic and political
\ntroubles have their origins in the weakness or absence of law.<\/p>\n
Economically, for example, big businesses have grown virtually
\nunchecked because of the absence of monopoly legislation.
\nIndonesia must also reform many of its economic and business laws
\nto keep pace with market globalization.<\/p>\n
Politically a debate about whether the nation should discard
\nthe 1962 anti-subversion law, which has been used by the
\ngovernment to silence its critics, has emerged.<\/p>\n
Try listed a number of areas that are still not properly
\ncovered by the legal system. They include laws on taxes, the
\nstock market, investment, trading agreements, labor, the
\nenvironment, oceanography and banking.<\/p>\n
He also cited copyright protection as one area that the legal
\ncommunity must cover, particularly to protect Indonesia's
\nhandicrafts.<\/p>\n
\"We must not let foreigners claim the copyright to our
\noriginal handicrafts,\" he said, adding that such cases had
\noccurred before.<\/p>\n
The establishment of the national law system requires extra
\nwork and great effort from everyone, but mainly the legal
\ncommunity, Try said.<\/p>\n
\"In dealing with the global trend and growing phenomenon, the
\nnational legal system is supposed to be able to accommodate and
\nanswer all challenges, as well as anticipate the trend of
\ndevelopment,\" he continued. \"The national legal system also has
\nto be flexible and dynamic, but firm and certain at the same
\ntime.\"<\/p>\n
Try said that in cases where existing laws could not deal with
\ncertain problems, those in the legal profession must close the
\nloopholes, guided by moral force and conscience.<\/p>\n
He said that the most important thing about law enforcement is
\nthe people behind the legal system.<\/p>\n
Strong and obedient law enforcers and human resources will
\nstrengthen the nation and constitution, he added. (imn)<\/p>",
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