Don't hire disreputable lawyers, say attorneys
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Who contributes the most to the corruption of the judiciary in this country? Is it prosecutors, lawyers or judges?
"All do, including the public and businesspeople who persist in winning litigation by 'buying' justice," noted lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta said on Thursday.
Frans, also a member of the National Commission on Legal Development (KHN), was addressing a workshop on benchmarks for the recruitment of prosecutors, judges and advocates co-organized by KHN and Yogyakarta-based legal watchdog, Indonesian Court Watch.
Human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who shared the same platform with Frans at the workshop, asked the public not to hire "disreputable lawyers", by which he meant those who violated the lawyers' moral code of ethics by guaranteeing victory for their clients and who enjoyed a "luxurious" life in their early career as lawyers.
The Indonesian judiciary has been under close scrutiny by the international community due to many bribery cases allegedly involving judges. But so far, none of the legal proceedings has brought the allegedly corrupt judges to justice.
Justice Mohammad Laica Marzuki said that if lawyers stopped "contacting" judges, then only 30 percent of the problems associated with Indonesia's corrupt judiciary would remain to be solved.
"It means that the remaining problem would be only how to improve the quality and professionalism of judges," Laica told the workshop.
UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Dato Param Cumaraswamy completed his mission on Wednesday with the conclusion that the Indonesian government faced serious trouble largely due to widespread corruption within the judiciary.
In a separate interview, National Ombudsman Commission chairman Antonius Sujata criticized the government for reacting defensively to Cumaraswamy's sharp comments that Indonesia's judiciary was among the worst in the world.
"Such reaction was unwise and unhelpful for solving the problem," he told The Jakarta Post.
As part of the attempts to improve the judiciary, Laica suggested the establishment of an independent committee to carry out the recruitment of judges, prosecutors and lawyers.
He argued that under current practice -- where all the tests are carried out by each respective institution for judges and prosecutors and the Supreme Court for lawyers -- such tests were still tainted by corruption, collusion and nepotism.