Judges of new court's credibility questioned

Judges of new court's credibility questioned

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Law experts have questioned the credibility of judges of the
newly established Constitutional Court due to the hasty selection
process and the endorsement of the Constitutional Court bill.

Legal expert Todung Mulya Lubis told The Jakarta Post on
Monday that the credibility of the judges was questionable as the
screening process was carried out in a very short time.

Thus, it is inevitable that the Constitutional Court has
several judges that are affiliated with political parties, and it
is difficult for the public to determine their independence from
those parties, he said.

"If we had enough time to carry out the screening process the
public would be made aware of the judge's political stance. Then,
we could force them to step down if their actions were contrary
to their earlier statement," he said.

Todung claimed that political interests had placed a heavy
burden on the selection of the Constitutional Court judges.

"It is very difficult to maintain public confidence in the
Constitutional Court," he said.

Another noted lawyer, Harun Al-Rasyid concurred with Todung.
Harun said that many people had quizzed him on the reputation of
the judges, but he knew very few of them.

"Who are these judges? Do they have knowledge on Constitution
Law and State Administrative Law?" he asked.

The Constitutional Court Law, he added, limits the ages of
judges to between 40 and 67. This is a violation of the amended
1945 Constitution as it does not stipulate such a criteria.

The Constitutional Court, which has nine judges, has extensive
power, including reviewing the laws of the amended 1945
Constitution, recommending the impeachment of the president,
dissolving political parties, and resolving election result
disputes.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri installed the nine judges on
Saturday after frantic selection by the government, the House of
Representatives and the Supreme Court. Each institution had the
liberty to select three judges.

The House named constitutional law expert Jimly Assiddiqie
(affiliated with Golkar party), former House legislator Achmad
Rustandi (affiliated with the United Development Party) and
People's Consultative Assembly legislator I Dewa Gede Palguna, as
Constitutional Court judges.

However, the House had only conducted screening processes over
two days of last week.

The government named Achmad Syariffudin Natabaya of the state
University of Sriwijaya, Mukti Fajar of the state University of
Brawijaya and Haryono of the regional representatives faction of
the People's Consultative Assembly (affiliated with the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle). The government also
failed to carry out open screening processes.

The remaining three judges, selected by the Supreme Court,
included Laica Marzuki, Sudarsono and Muarar Siahaan. All are
High Court judges.

Critics pointed out that the Constitution Court Law would
experience problems as it was only deliberated by the House in
the six weeks before its endorsement on Aug. 6. Megawati signed
the court bill several days later.