A matter of intent

A matter of intent

The statement given by the chairman of the Jakarta State
Administrative Court, HB Mangkudilaga, to the effect that many
government officials are still reluctant to obey the Court's
decisions seems disturbing enough to warrant discussion. As was
reported, according to the chairman not less than 30 to 40
percent of officials fail to abide by the Court's decisions.

The reasons given are, first, the complexity of the
bureaucracy, which prevents those decisions from reaching the
lower echelons of the bureaucracy in time; second, the fact that
the State Administrative Court itself is a new institution and
therefore not very much known.

We can understand that the Court's decisions tend to reach the
lower echelons slowly because of the bureaucratic hurdles they
must pass. However, assuming that there is a strong enough
intention on the part of superiors to respect the law, surely
there would be no need for the bureaucracy to become an obstacle.
Rather, it could facilitate procedures.

If the problem is that the State Administrative Court is not
familiar among officialdom, then the time has come that the
authorities concerned take the proper steps to make it better
known.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta