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)