Bagir worried about court facilities

BANDUNG: Chief Justice Bagir Manan voiced concerns on Thursday that poor facilities in courthouses all over Indonesia.

During a recent trip across the archipelago, Bagir recalled seeing administrative staff in most courts working with typewriters instead of computers.

"The staff carried out their jobs using typewriters which were more than 20 years old -- what a pity," he told West Java Governor Nuriana and others at the induction of the province's new High Court chief, Beni Suhandasah, at the legislative council.

When it comes to physical appearances, Bagir said that rooms in court buildings are too cramped and spartan.

Bagir said that he also regretted the fact that the government could not provide district court chiefs with official transportation.

"When they receive invitations from their governors or regents, they must borrow or rent cars in order to maintain their civic pride," Bagir, a former rector at Bandung Islamic University, said.

The poor facilities, he noted, only worsen the already tarnished image Indonesia's court system has as a law enforcement institution susceptible to bribery and corruption, Bagir said.

In fact, "courts have become places where commercial transactions take place on a scale no less frenetic than those on the floor of the stock exchange," he said dryly.

The picture he painted was one reflecting the sometimes great lengths to which people go to win a judge's favor. -- Antara