Bagir worried about court facilities

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