Equality for rich and poor?

Equality for rich and poor?

Winahyo Soekanto, Lawyer, Consumer Care Foundation (YPK), Jakarta

Come to Hall B of the Jakarta Fair Ground in Kemayoran,
Central Jakarta these days and witness how Akbar Tandjung, a
suspect in the multi-billion-fraud case, and Tommy Mandala Putra,
a suspect in the murder of justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita,
defend their cases. Broadcast live by television cameras, the
trials are fast becoming a favorite show to many, helping
increased ratings and maybe more advertisements for the
television stations.

In the air-conditioned facilities, judges, prosecutors, and
legal counsels no longer have to sweat and feel the heat in their
robes and suits, while the presence of a large number of police
personnel helps ensure that the defendants are safe and that the
trials proceed smoothly.

The same comfort may also help the defendants prepare their
best defenses -- the upholding of human dignity as mandated by
the Law No. 14/1970 on the judiciary. The judges' recent decision
to release Akbar from detention may also prove to be favorable to
his defense.

The question is whether such comfort and the legal facilities
afforded to those big shots are also available for everybody
else. Yet for some, street justice is the best that they can get.

In Bogor, West Java, a mob of hundreds of people recently beat
up and killed Herman bin Santa who was suspected of stealing a
motorbike. Herman was under police escort when the mob attacked
him. In Pekayon, Bekasi, West Java, hundreds of angry people
dragged Musa, a suspected thief out of his house, stripped him
naked and tied him to a motorcycle. Someone then rode the
motorbike, dragging the suspected thief behind the vehicle and
killing him.

This glaring contrast cannot be anything else than the result
of the government's failure to ensure equal protection under the
laws as mandated by the 1945 Constitution and the 1979 law on the
judiciary which stipulates that Indonesia is a democracy that
upholds the law and that guarantees equality before the law and
that guarantees the government's stance against discrimination.

But we are forced to witness how legal processes here often
neglect the principle of equality before the law. This is
especially true in cases that involve big businesses, for
instance, the conglomerates that have harmed the state's
financial interests through their violation of the government's
regulation in the use of hundreds of trillions of bank liquidity
assistance (BLBI).

The suspects in those cases are now either still free because
they somehow defeated the legal system, or got away with the
minimum sanction. Take David Nusa Widjaja, for instance, who was
recently sentenced to a year of imprisonment for embezzling Rp
1.29 trillion (about US$ 134 million) of the BLBI fund.

Yet the government has failed to protect the rights of
suspected thieves who were lynched to death. This has been taking
place for so long despite Indonesia having the mandate of the
Criminal Code that stipulates the rights of anyone facing legal
situations to a state-sponsored legal counsel, to an independent
and honest and speedy trial.

These cases form the basis of the public experience of the
laws, leading people to ask the age-old questions: What and who
are the laws for? Why does the law have two faces? A friendly one
toward the powerful and the rich with resources at their disposal
to hire expensive lawyers and procure comfort even in the
detention cells; and a vicious, frowning one toward the direction
of the poor and the downtrodden.

When the rich and the powerful commit a crime they do so out
of greed -- no one can dispute that -- while the small fry
criminals break the law because life has dealt them a tough blow.
That is not rhetoric, but the findings of a survey last February
conducted by the Partnership for Good Governance on Corruption in
Indonesia. The majority of respondents believe the Indonesian
judiciary is part of a legal system that favors the rich and the
powerful.

Almost two-thirds of Indonesian households who answered a
nationwide survey reported falling victim to corruption by public
officials, according to the report. Traffic police are considered
the most corrupt body, followed by the customs department and the
judiciary, while mosques, churches and temples were seen as the
least corrupt institutions, followed by the post office, the news
media, non-government organizations and labor unions.

When the "little people" resort to violence and violations of
the law in expressing their frustration, they incur even greater
costs. Some get killed while the rich and the powerful retain
their positions even as they face legal charges -- that's what
has happened to Central Bank Governor Syahril Sabirin and House
Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

The corrupt power holders and business people adhere to an
entirely different rule of the game that enable them to "gain at
no pain" while the poor and the downtrodden often have to endure
so much pain and no gain.

Another study, conducted by the Indonesian Society for
Transparency (MTI) in 1999-2000, found that out of 395
presidential decrees issued since 1971, 79 of them smacked of
corruption and nepotism.

The law has been pummeled by the law enforcers themselves, the
political power holders and corrupt business people that it has
degenerated into a mere political tool for the power holders
seeking to further their own interests at the expenses of
ordinary people. Legal processes now abuse the public trust, and
become not much more than a tool of the centralization of powers.

In addition, the law has become a means for the corrupt and
colluding business people to justify their acts, including those
that will kill competition, and to gain privileges in businesses.

Harold J. Berman of the Harvard Law School defined the law as
an expression of the human rationale and morality, and that it
cannot be considered a law that does not support the ideals for
which it is established.

It is thus high time that Indonesia ends the expressions of
the law that insult our common sense and the morality of the
public.