Stiff sanctions needed for crooked lawyers<\/p>\n
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
\"Who helps criminals before they get arrested? The answer:
\nAcquaintances. And who helps criminals after they get arrested?
\nThe answer: Lawyers ... !!\"<\/p>\n
That anecdote, taken from Stan Rose's book The Joke's on
\nLawyer, precisely describes the public reputation of lawyers in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Bribery, extortion and document forgery are seen as common
\npractice in the country's courts.<\/p>\n
The case of Elza Syarief, a lawyer the City Police arrested on
\nMonday for allegedly bribing two witnesses to lie under oath, is
\nseen by many as just the tip of the iceberg of the crimes
\ncommitted by lawyers here. Which is rather ironic, given the
\nstated commitment to legal supremacy in this new era of reform.<\/p>\n
To achieve this commitment, the country's legal apparatus,
\nincluding lawyers, must be clean and honest. Otherwise, legal
\nsupremacy will never materialize.<\/p>\n
The country does have regulations to govern lawyers. These
\ninclude a 1987 joint statement by the Supreme Court and the
\nMinistry of Justice on the supervision, sanction and defense of
\nadvocates, Criminal Code procedures and the 1989 Supreme Court
\ndecree on the licensing of new advocates.<\/p>\n
Adding to this, eight lawyers' associations have eight
\ndifferent codes of ethics.<\/p>\n
Still, violations of the regulations and codes are general and
\nwidespread. Yet, the slack supervision by the bar associations
\nhas meant that not a single lawyer has had their license to
\npractice law revoked.<\/p>\n
\"I have never heard of an advocate who was sanctioned by a bar
\nassociation,\" said noted lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta.<\/p>\n
This should come as a surprise since the list of crimes and
\nmisdemeanors committed by those in the profession is long.<\/p>\n
During an ethics hearing in front of the Indonesian Advocates
\nand Lawyers Association (HAPI), Elza, who is the deputy
\nsecretary-general of the association, confessed to meeting with a
\njudge in a corruption case in which she was representing the
\ndefendant.<\/p>\n
That defendant was the youngest son of former president
\nSoeharto, Hutomo \"Tommy\" Mandala Putra. The judge, Syafiuddin
\nKartasasmita, was shot to death last year. Tommy is now facing
\nmurder charges.<\/p>\n
A lawyer meeting with a judge hearing a case he or she is
\ninvolved with is considered a violation of court ethics because
\nit smacks of collusion.<\/p>\n
In a different case, lawyer Petrus Balapattyona was arrested
\non charges of manipulating the testimony of a witness in a drug
\ncase.<\/p>\n
Neither Elza nor Petrus has been sanctioned professionally
\nbecause of an apparent lack of desire on the part of bar
\nassociations to pursue the matters. This inability to impose
\norder on members means that other lawyers have little
\nprofessional fear of committing the same violations.<\/p>\n
Bar associations are well within their rights to recommend to
\nthe Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, as well as to the
\nSupreme Court, that lawyers' licenses be revoked.<\/p>\n
A bill on the advocate profession, which lawmakers are slowly
\ndeliberating, would allow a bar association promptly to dismiss
\nlawyers.<\/p>\n
But part of the problem lies in the number of bar
\nassociations, of which Indonesia has eight.<\/p>\n
\"If a lawyer is expelled from one bar organization, he can
\neasily jump over to another lawyer association which has a
\ndifferent code of ethics,\" said Frans.<\/p>\n
Therefore, one influential bar association is needed to create
\norder in the profession.<\/p>\n
\"The United States Bar Association is influential. All lawyers
\nare bound by the decisions of this organization, and it can
\nestablish order in the profession because a lawyer's fate depends
\non its decision,\" said Arif Gunantoko from Adhyaksa and Co. Law
\nFirm.<\/p>\n
Although bar associations here have so far shown little
\nenthusiasm for merging into a single institution, the idea has
\ngained ground. As have calls for the creation of a single code of
\nethics binding all lawyers.<\/p>\n
\"The Indonesian Bar Association has been given a mandate by
\nother organizations to create a single code of ethics for all
\nassociations,\" Sudjono, the chairman of the association, told The
\nJakarta Post on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Sudjono did not mention when this code of ethics would be
\nrevealed, simply saying it would be completed soon.<\/p>\n
Another hopeful development is the deliberation of the bill on
\nthe advocate profession by the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
If enacted, the law on advocates would include a code of
\nethics for lawyers, opening the way for the regulation of the
\nprofession.<\/p>\n
Despite the fact that Elza has further damaged the reputation
\nof lawyers in the country, her case might do some good if its
\nproves to be the necessary impetus for the legislature to speed
\nup the deliberations of the advocate bill.<\/p>\n
This in turn would help create what the reform movement has
\nbeen missing all this time: Lawyers of high integrity who uphold
\nthe law.<\/p>\n
List of Bar Associations
\n 1. Ikatan Advokat Indonesia (Ikadin) : Indonesian Bar Association
\n 2. Asosiasi Advokat Indonesia (AAI) : Indonesian Bar Association
\n 3. Asosiasi Konsultan Hukum Indonesia (AKHI) : Association of<\/p>\n
Indonesian Legal Consultants
\n 4. Himpunan Konsultan Hukum Pasar Modal (HKPM) : Capital Market<\/p>\n
Lawyer Association
\n 5. Ikatan Penasehat Hukum Indonesia (IPHI) : Indonesian Lawyers<\/p>\n
Association
\n 6. Serikat Pengacara Indonesia (SPI) : Indonesian Lawyers<\/p>\n
Alliance
\n 7. Perkumpulan Pengacara Kepailitan (PPK) : Association of<\/p>\n
Indonesian Bankruptcy Litigation Lawyers
\n 8. Himpunan Advokat dan Pengacara Indonesia (HAPI) : Indonesian<\/p>\n
Advocates and Lawyers Association<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/stiff-sanctions-needed-for-crooked-lawyers-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }