House lifts hurdle to judicial liberty

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) has removed one major hurdle to judicial independence by placing all courts under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court, but a noted legal expert warned that an independent and clean judicial system was still a long way off.

The House endorsed on Thursday the revisions to Law No. 14/1970 on Judicial Power as well as Law No. 14/1985 on the Supreme Court, putting an end to interference by the ministry of justice and human rights in the country's court system.

"We hope these two bills will improve our judicial system," said Zain Badjeber, chairman of the House's Legislation Body (Baleg), at a plenary meeting here.

Currently, the justice and human rights ministry is in charge of promotion, placement, salaries and other administrative tasks of judges, while the Supreme Court deals mostly with appeals.

Experts have blamed the overlapped authority as one of the causes of the corrupt judicial system, because most judges tend to prioritize their career and position when issuing court verdicts on high-profile cases like corruption involving government officials.

Under the revisions, the organizational, administrative and financial affairs of both public and state administrative courts will be placed under the Supreme Court by March 31, 2004 at the latest.

For the religious and military courts, the transfer should be made no later than June 30 next year.

Supreme Court chief Bagir Manan welcomed the revisions, saying that the moves could speed up judicial reform in the country.

However, Johnson Pandjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) warned that such a "one-roof system" would not be enough to create an independent and corruption-free judicial system.

"The Supreme Court has to get rid of corruption, nepotism or collusion, nor has it done anything about the 'court mafia'," Johnson told The Jakarta Post late Thursday night.

He also said that the Supreme Court would have to embark on major internal reforms if it wanted to improve its tarnished image.

"Reforming the internal system to promote transparency and good administrative practices is desperately needed," Johnson said.

The Supreme Court, according to Johnson, must put in place clear mechanisms for handling certain types of cases, especially appeals.

The House will resume the revisions of three other laws -- on the State Administrative Court, the Public Court and on State Prosecutor -- in January or February.

The House also agreed on Thursday that the Supreme court consisted of one chairman and two deputies to be in charge of judicial empowerment and administrative affairs, respectively.

Patrialis Akbar of the Reform faction claimed that the endorsement was not legitimate because only 207 of 500 House members attended the meeting. "It is below the mandatory quorum," he said.

House deputy speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno argued that the plenary meeting had met the quorum. "A total of 309 legislators signed the attendance list. This means that the quorum needs the presence of 155 legislators," he theorized.

Key Articles ===============================================================

In the Judicial Power Law ------------------------- * Article 4 (3): All manner of interference with judicial affairs by anyone outside the judicial bodies is prohibited except for stipulations on the Constitution. * Article 5: Justices and court clerks must withdraw if he or she has a conflict of interest in any case. * Article 43: All assets in the state court, high court, state administrative court and high state administrative court belong to the Supreme Court.

In the Supreme Court Law ------------------------ * Article 7: People can be nominated as a Supreme Court justice if they have at least a master's degree in law and at least 25 years of experience in legal affairs. * Article 11: The retirement age of a Supreme Court justice is 65, but it can be extended up to 67 under some conditions. * Article 25: Secretary general is changed to Secretary of the Supreme Court. ================================================================ Sources: Revised Laws on Judicial Power and on Supreme Court