JP/20/SAHLAN

JP/20/SAHLAN

Sahlan has own way to fight court Mafia

Sri Wahyuni
The Jakarta Post
Yogyakarta

Sahlan Said, 56, is just an ordinary judge at Yogyakarta District
Court, without an important position.

But many see him as special and extraordinary, in the sense
that he is one of only a few judges who have the guts to fight
what is popularly called the "court Mafia," with regard to the
promotion of judges.

His own struggle has motivated him to seek early retirement
instead of promotion as a higher judge at Kendari High Court in
Southeast Sulawesi.

"I don't see it as promotion at all. Rather, it is a
punishment that is packaged in such a way as to appear like
promotion," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

"No, they do not want to promote me. They just want to dump
me. They want to send me far away from mass media access."

The allegation is strengthened by the fact that he had to
spend at least four years in his present position before he could
gain promotion.

Besides, he said, the promotion came after he repeatedly and
consistently revealed the existence of a "Mafia" in the court,
which took an active role in the unfair promotion of judges.

One such criticism was articulated at a World Bank forum in
July 3 this year, to which he was invited to talk about the
Indonesian courts, including the Mafia.

"I was warned then that the World Bank had also invited top
government officials from the Ministry of Justice and Human
Rights, meaning that my superiors would be there to listen to my
presentation. But I said it was all right, I was prepared to take
the risk.

"So, I expected that sooner or later I would receive such a
'covert' punishment," said Sahlan, who was once jailed, together
with novelist Ashadi Siregar and historian Anhar Gonggong, for
his involvement in the Malari student demonstration in 1975 that
was transformed into an anti-Japanese riot.

Sahlan argues that the court Mafia influences the promotion of
judges. He concludes that judges who received unfair promotion
would most likely have also become part of the court Mafia.

"I told the World Bank that it had provided aid in the wrong
direction. I suggested it give assistance according to need, for
example, by providing help to control bad or unscrupulous judges,
not by providing computers or the like," said Sahlan, who has
been named as a prospective Constitutional Court judge.

Sahlan has popularized the infamous term S3, (sowan, sungkem
and sajen) to describe the way most judges in Indonesia struggle
to gain promotion via unfair means.

Sowan in Javanese means paying a courtesy visit to someone of
higher social status. Sungkem means showing respect to someone of
higher status by putting one's palms together in front of one's
chest while nodding one's head solemnly. Sajen means offerings,
in this case a sort of bribery.

"The term is not of my own creation. It's been there among
judges for a long time, because KKN (corruption, collusion and
nepotism) in the court world came into existence a very long time
ago. I just drew them together, because others simply didn't have
the courage to do so," he said.

Corruption in the court, Sahlan said, had reached alarming
levels, as it had spread like a chronic disease.

He said that such behavior had become established, not for
economic reasons, as judges were paid well, but more for cultural
reasons and also due to the corrupt mentality of judges.

One possible way to eradicate this plague was to establish a
privately run court.

"Some suggest that to heal the Indonesian court, the entire
generation of current judges, including the top leaders, should
be replaced by new ones. I see that a privately run court could
eventually help in the healing process," Sahlan said.

He envisioned a private court that was run by upright, retired
judges. He was inspired by the presence of such a court in the
Philippines, which was established for a different reason.

"The problem is, there is a tendency that people are now going
to court to win, not to seek justice. This is what I would term a
cultural problem," he said almost in desperation.

Although there is always hope that a just and credible
judiciary is possible in the future, Sahlan said he was very
pessimistic.

So pessimistic was he with the present situation that he once
refused promotion as head of a district court in Purwokerto,
Central Java, arguing that it would only restrict his movement
and freedom of speech.

"I was also afraid that if I was not strong enough to resist I
would simply be carried away or unable to do anything at all. I
feel safer the way I am. I can observe and speak freely," said
Sahlan, the former secretary of the Army-founded Lembaga
Kesadaran Berkonstitusi or the Foundation for the Insitute of
Constitutional Awareness (1979-1980) and an activist at Petisi 50
group of government critics.

Born in the East Java town of Lamongan on May 25, 1947, Sahlan
Said has a good reputation for his consistent criticism of the
rottenness of the courts, including their widespread corruption.

He never hesitates to reveal corruption in his working
environment. He is also unwavering when identifying judges who
have allegedly committed corruption, even if they are his own
direct superiors.

He has also been critical of how certain central government
officials from the ministry of justice and human rights have
helped nurture corruption by asking for "VIP treatment" from
regional judges, driving them to seek additional illegal income.

As a judge, similarly, he is also recognized as one of only a
few in the country who use their own conscience when delivering
verdicts in cases they have handled.

He is a judge who always sides with the people's cry for
justice, which explains why many of the sentences he has given
have often sparked controversy in the community, not because they
were considered unjust but more because they were unusual.

"I have known him for some 10 years and have on several
occasions defended a case in a trial at which he presided.
Although not all the defendants in his courts were acquitted, I
always felt able to accept the sentence he gave with all my
heart. I never felt there was anything suspicious in his court,"
lawyer and former director of Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute Budi
Santoso told The Post.

"Personally, I agree with his decision to choose retirement
over promotion. He can do much here to continue his struggle for
fighting against corruption in the courts that he would not be
able to do if he were in Kendari," Budi said.

Sahlan graduated from the school of law at Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta in 1975. The following year, he joined
the ministry of justice as a law and law report researcher.

He started his career as a judge in 1979 at Magelang District
Court, Central Java. His assignments took him to Kalabahi
District Court, East Nusa Tenggara (1981), Banyumas, Central Java
(1985), Bantul, Yogyakarta (1990), back again to Magelang in 1997
and finally to Yogyakarta District Court in 2002.

He also lectures in some law-related subjects at a number of
universities in Yogyakarta, including his alma mater, Gadjah Mada
University, Yogyakarta Muhammdiyah University (UMY) and the
Indonesian Islamic University (UII).