Indonesian legal institutions not working properly: Lawyer
Indonesian legal institutions not working properly: Lawyer
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian legal institutions aren't working
effectively, largely because of the government's domineering
power over the legislative body, noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis
said.
Speaking at a seminar on the national legal system, Mulya said
yesterday that the tendency in the past had been to blame the
people who ran the system rather than the system itself.
"But is this correct?" he asked the 350 legal experts taking
part in the five-day seminar which was opened by President
Soeharto on Monday.
Mulya said that it would be "unfair" to lay the blame entirely
on the people who ran the legislative bodies for some of the
notorious rulings made by the courts, which are supposed to be
the highest forum for justice.
Most major, recent court rulings should provide ample evidence
that the independence and integrity of the legal institutions
have been eroded, Mulya said.
"It turns out that the independence and integrity of the
institutions have been wrested away by the executive body," said
Mulya, who spoke in rebuttal to a paper presented by former
justice minister Ismail Saleh on the same subject.
Mulya used the cases of businessman Eddy Tansil, the murder of
labor activist Marsinah and the trial of students to support his
argument about the lack of independence of Indonesian courts.
The way the suspects of Marsinah's murder were arrested also
violated the police code of conduct.
He said the legal institutions had failed to function as the
provider of justice.
The complaints expressed about the allegations of a "court
mafia", collusion among court officials, and corruption are not
simply aimed at the people who run the legal system, but also at
the system itself, he said.
The legal institutions in Indonesia have fallen into the trap
of becoming tools of those in power, he said. He added that,
although this might be a misleading generalization, many people
are subscribing to this view.
Mulya argued for the need to apply the concept of Trias
Politica, which divides the state into three independent powers:
the executive, the legislative and judicial bodies.
This concept, unfortunately, had been rejected as "un-
Indonesian", he said.
"It is an illusion to expect our legal institutions to
function freely and independently in a country that does not the
Trias Politica concept," he said. (05)