Chaotic judiciary
The first month of the year has seen at least two chaotic applications of law and justice in the country, which means our judiciary will remain the same as before: unreformed and corrupt.
The first instance was when the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office named Sjahril Sabirin (former Bank Indonesia governor) and I Putu Gede Ary Suta (former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency head) suspects on Jan. 12, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar made a conflicting statement, saying the police had yet to determine them as suspects.
The second instance was in the East Jakarta District Court's release on Jan. 15 of two suspects in the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) scam -- but they were immediately detained again by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office.
These pictures of our judicial process reflects conflicting interests among the nation's law enforcers, e.g., the police, prosecutors and judges. People see through them -- as is already the case -- how chaotic and unruly our judiciary system is.
Denny Kalimang of the Indonesian Advocates Association lamented that such confusing and contradictory information indicated a tendency for a power struggle between prosecutors and the police, especially since the establishment of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Each wants to show the public that they are the most capable in handling corruption cases.
This would not have happened, says Kalimang, if the police had handled corruption cases and prosecutors had prosecuted the corrupters while supervising police performance.
The latest instance concerns the Account No. 502 corruption case involving the above-mentioned ex-state officials and whether the case was purely a legal matter, or was merely for political gains by certain parties as regards the general elections.
These pictures of our justice system illustrates the stagnancy of legal reform, much as the Supreme Court chief acknowledged that judiciary corruption is rampant (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 15).
This country seems to be waiting for a real champion of reform who might emerge from the direct presidential election later this year. If the election does not produce such a champion, we cannot expect legal reform, so let us pray to God instead that this country does not fall into disgrace.
M. RUSDI Jakarta