Aging judges to work on backlogged legal cases

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Instead of recruiting new, younger judges, the Supreme Court has decided to extend the service of aging justices to handle some 16,000 backlogged cases.

Chief Justice Bagir Manan announced here on Wednesday that the court would, "for practical reasons", enlist the service of several judges who had already reached their mandatory retirement age of 65.

"We lack personnel. As long as they are healthy and able to examine and rule on cases, it's fine," said Bagir, while adding that the retirement age would be extended from 65 to 67.

Under existing laws, Supreme Court justices are appointed by a judicial commission, however, that commission has not yet been established.

Some of the justices who have already turned 65 include Toton Suprapto, who heads the Supreme Court's director for conventions of civilian affairs, Chairani and Usman Karim. Justice Syamsu Hadi, who is vying for the Supreme Court's deputy chief position, will be 65 next February.

The newly passed Supreme Court law allows for the service extension of justices "with extraordinary achievements" only.

Bagir said he understood that the Law No. 5/2004 required that an extension was only granted to justices that had performed exceptionally well, but added that it was extraordinarily vague.

"We don't know how to measure 'extraordinary achievement' because the law does not define it clearly," he stated with a veiled barb thrown in at the legislators who passed the law.

Bagir explained that a good law was supposed to be clear so it could be implemented properly.

He added that he hoped that the House could establish the judicial commission soon, in order that they could select justices in line with the new law, and decide on who could stay on after 65.

Although the establishment of the judicial commission is mandated by the Constitution, the House and the government have yet to start the deliberation of the bill on the commission.

Meanwhile, Asep Rahmat Fajar of the Indonesia Judiciary Observers Community (MAPPI) said that the court should bid them good riddance and be done with them.

"Half of them have been selected without proper evaluations or assessments. We need to let those justices retire and the court must urge the House to set up the judicial commission to screen credible candidates," he said on Wednesday.

Asep also said that backlogged cases could not be settled by extending their retirement age, because they were part of the problem that had created this huge backlog.

"They are not efficient in handling cases," he asserted.

The Supreme Court, which is struggling to reform itself, has lost the confidence of the public according to legal experts, most of whom believe the court has failed to do justice, particularly in its recent and highly controversial decision to overturn House Speaker Akbar Tandjung's corruption conviction.