Chief Justice Bagir Manan aiming for judicial transparency
By Peter Kerr and Tertiani Simanjuntak
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's new Supreme Court chief justice finds that the hills and stairs around his home in Bandung, where he is a professor at Padjajaran University's School of Law, offer the perfect exercise and escape from work.
At 59, Bagir Manan will need a clear head and plenty of stamina to tackle one of the nation's biggest challenges: reforming the judiciary and eliminating corrupt judges, justices and officials.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Jakarta Post he agreed that more than three-quarters of Indonesia's judges and justices may be corrupt, and that greater political will was needed to fight corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN).
But he defended the Supreme Court's ability to reform itself and said he was considering a raft of changes aimed at increasing the skills and integrity of judges, improving and streamlining case management, and increasing public access to decisions.
Other changes, such as limiting the number of cases that reach the Supreme Court (Indonesia's highest judicial body has a backlog of some 12,000 cases), would require action by the government or House of Representatives.
Bagir said he wanted to "start now" with the reforms but refused to be drawn on a timetable, particularly for removing corrupt judges, justices and officials.
Asked whether he agreed that up to 85 percent of Indonesia's judiciary was corrupt, as estimated by former deputy chief justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto, Bagir said:
"It's possible, 85 percent or 75 percent.
"When we talk about allegedly corrupt judges it's not only in the Supreme Court but also in the Court of Appeal, for instance, and not only in the general court, in the ordinary court, but also in the administrative court and so on.
"So it's a big, big problem.
"We don't have any choice other than to work hard to find out the scum.
"But I don't want to promise you that, for example, within this month there are two judges, or three judges, or five judges (brought to justice).
"I don't want to make promises, we just have to work hard."
Anti-corruption campaigners argue it is impossible for such a flawed institution to reform itself, but Bagir said there was "no choice".
Reform of the people's "last terminal" to find justice was needed now, and time spent debating how it should occur would just mean more delay.
Two main categories of reform were required, he said: Overcoming public complaints about corrupt judges and the backlog of outstanding cases, and building a proper system to recover the court's image.
In the effort to eradicate KKN, the court had already established a supervisory body authorized to take firm action against judges and officials.
"There are sanctions, from a warning to a dismissal, if the body finds that they have abused their profession. And, if any was proved to have taken a bribe, then we'll turn the case over to the court," Bagir said.
He was considering a range of other reforms, some that could be implemented internally but others that needed government regulation.
An important but difficult change, requiring political will, was to limit the number of cases coming before the Supreme Court, and the government was now working on such a bill.
Reasons for the current backlog included people's dissatisfaction with lower-court verdicts, and the lack of a law limiting what types of cases could be brought to the highest court.
"Such bad verdicts may be occurring because the judges don't have good legal skills or, possibly, because there was collusion involved," Bagir said.
"So, again, supervising (the system) becomes the most important aspect to avoid commercialization of a case."
The new supervisory body might also be able to evaluate any judges who had five of their verdicts challenged and then ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
"The body may issue an evaluation that the judge has bad credibility so therefore should not be promoted," he said.
Apart from limiting the Supreme Court's caseload and supervising its conduct, the productivity of justices also had to be increased.
"And it can be achieved if the justices have good legal skills and integrity for their profession, with support from hi-tech devices such as computers to enable quick access to information and precedent-setting verdicts," Bagir said.
Lack of transparency in the judicial system also needed to be addressed.
For example, the identities of the three judges appointed to each case were currently kept secret in an effort to avoid them being offered bribes.
But this "good purpose" could be misused by other judges, who might offer to divulge who was handling a case in return for a bribe.
"I think that to combat this bad behavior why don't we do away with secrecy of judges who handle the cases?" Bagir said.
"For example, every two weeks or once a month we could publish the names of all the judges appointed, so everyone will know who they are."
Similarly all court verdicts, which sometimes could be delayed for months while they were typed up or processed, should be made public in a simple form as quickly as possible.
This would remove the ability of judges or court officials to "negotiate" over releasing information.
"These kind of transparencies may be small procedures but they are important to prevent these kinds of illegal negotiations," Bagir said.
He also wanted to eliminate abuse of the system by people filing a Supreme Court case in the hope of delaying the execution of a district court verdict.
He was considering delegating a panel of three justices to evaluate whether requests to delay execution should be granted by the chief justice.
A longer-term change might be to allow the Supreme Court to check the facts of a case, rather than just deciding whether the law had been properly applied.
"Sometimes I have a feeling when I handle a case (that) the facts are not right as presented," he said.
"But we don't have any authority to correct facts, because we just handle the law.
"Now, in the future it might be that we have to change the system in some fields (so) the Supreme Court can not only check the law but also check the case, but we have to change the system."
Bagir said he agreed that judges' salaries should be increased, but this was no guarantee they would not take bribes.
"I cannot guarantee that a higher salary can make you a decent person, but with a sufficient salary they can do a better job and be more productive," he said.
The Indonesian Judges' Association (Ikahi) recommended last March a fivefold salary hike in which first-level judges would receive Rp 15 million a month (up from Rp 3 million to Rp 4 million), High Court judges would be paid Rp 25 million a month (up from Rp 5 million), and justices would receive Rp 40 million a month (compared with Rp 12 million they now receive).
Bagir, acknowledging Indonesia's current economic difficulties, said any salary increase would be up to the legislature.
Asked whether he thought the failure to arrest Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra was an embarrassment for the government, and whether there was a lack of political will to fight corruption, Bagir agreed government action was necessary.
Tommy, the youngest son of former ruler Soeharto, has been convicted of corruption but fled after last year's verdict. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has ruled that Soeharto senior should face trial on corruption charges when judged fit enough.
"From the court's point of view (it) has finished with the (Tommy) Soeharto case because there was a decision from the highest court, the Supreme Court," he said.
"To apply this court's sentence is the government's responsibility."
He agreed that the government and legislators were sometimes putting political interests before the nation's interests.
"Yes, this is a very complicated problem when you talk about KKN, because it will take a long, long time," he said.
"For example, a lot of these things happened around 30 years ago, and that's a long time.
"And now we are in the period of reform. When we start with reform we are fixing a big, big problem, not only in the area of corruption but also economics and politics -- it's very complex.
"(But) I do agree there should be political action to do something quickly to combat this corruption."
Peter Kerr is Deputy Foreign Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. He is spending four months at The Jakarta Post under a Medialink fellowship, funded by the Australia-Indonesia Institute. Tertiani Simanjuntak is a journalist with The Jakarta Post.