Better salary key to boosting judges' integrity and quality

JAKARTA (JP): A better salary and complete organizational separation from the bureaucracy are key to improving the integrity and quality of judges in Indonesia, head of the Bandung District Court Djoko Soetono said.

Djoko, 57, argued that at present the status of judges was caught between the roles of a legal officer and a civil servant.

Speaking in Bandung, West Java, at a discussion on The Significance of the Independence of Law Institutions in Legal Reform, Djoko pointed out that based on Law No. 2/1986, judges have the same status as civil servants.

"So how can you expect judges to be free or exempted from the intrusion of other powers?"

As a result, the public places little trust on the decision of judges, particularly when hearing a case which has political nuances, he said.

Furthermore, if society expects judges to perform a competent role in such challenging situation, judges must also be provided with the appropriate salary, he said.

According to Djoko, Law No. 14/1970 already stipulates that the salary of judges would be structured and arranged separately (from the rest of the bureaucracy), however it has yet to be carried out.

"Up to now the salary of judges is still the same as regular civil servants," he said as quoted by Antara. "In fact teachers who are civil servants can earn more because they can moonlight by teaching in other schools."

Djoko further lamented the fact that despite the importance of the law, the overall budget for the Ministry of Justice was still equivalent to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

He called for a greater public understanding of judges who were often swamped with cases.

People must not generalize skeptical perceptions about judges being involved in a "court mafia", he said.

"Please remember there are only about 4,000 judges in this country scattered across 256 district courts," he said. "Look at the judges serving in very remote and isolated areas, how can they be involved in collusive practices when they handle mostly small radio theft cases."

Regardless of what people may often think, a large number of judges, especially those serving outside of Java, do not even have a motorcycle, let alone a car, he said. (mds)