Judicial corruption is still rampant

Frans H. Winarta Jakarta

In the midst of the anticorruption campaign introduced by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his first year term of office, an incident occurred at the Supreme Court recently in which a lawyer and five staff members of the Supreme Court were involved in an attempt to bribe Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan. This scandal has proven again that judicial corruption is still rampant in Indonesia.

People who often have to deal with courts or other law enforcement offices, will easily see the above mentioned practices occurring in the day to day proceedings at the courts.

It is no secret that businessmen who have legal cases in court reserve a budget to be allocated for judges or prosecutors through their lawyers who act as brokers. Local and international companies often have to be involved in the dirty practice. Both local and international companies are often trapped into the habit of legitimizing illegal practices.

The forms are various such as bribery, fraud, improper influence, inducements and interference in the form of providing travel packages for the said officers and their families, housing, jewelry, money, sex and leisure, entertainment, golf club membership and so forth. This is usually carried out by their respective lawyers.

The rational behind bribery is usually based on the perception that they will lose the case if they do not practice the above tricks. Many judges complain and allegedly accuse lawyers of being provocateurs.

Meanwhile, the Lawyers Act does not prohibit ex judges, ex prosecutors, ex police officers and ex topnotch government officials and military officials from becoming lawyers. During the debate in the House of Representatives on the draft bill of the Lawyers Act many factions did not agree to prohibiting ex-law enforcement agencies and ex government and military officials from becoming lawyers.

The reason for the restriction is to prevent collusion among lawyers and judges. Those who have past relations are susceptible to collusion and intervention. This is the result of passing a law based on group interests rather than the people's interests. As we can see from the two recent incidents involving suspended Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh's and Probosutedjo's lawyers it is about time to amend the Lawyers Act.

The establishment of the Corruption Eradication Team about a year ago is meaningless to corruptors and those who are involved in judicial corruption. This is proven by the scandalous Probosutedjo case at the Supreme Court in which a retired judge of the High Court of Yogyakarta was involved in giving money to five members of the Supreme Court staff which was allegedly intended to be given to Chief Justice Bagir Manan.

This allegation was denied by Bagir Manan who headed the panel of judges of the Probosutedjo case in which Probosutedjo had been found guilty by the lower courts of siphoning off a large portion of the reforestation fund for himself. While, in the case of Abdullah Puteh, his lawyer was caught red-handed when he delivered money to an official of the Jakarta High Court.

Corruption has caused legal uncertainty. From the application of permits, purchasing land, business permits, building permits to the forming of a company, all require various illegal payments.

The slow progress of the corruption eradication program is caused by the lack of political will of the Cabinet members and other senior government officials. They do not fully support the program as reflected by the absence of an internal anticorruption program.

Another obstacle could be the forming of the Corruption Eradication Team, because its presence has reduced the authority of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as a super body which can take over corruption cases from the police or the prosecutor's office if they have not handled the case seriously. At the same time the KPK is entitled to apply the reverse burden of proof, to tap telephones, to reveal the suspect's bank account, to utilize photostat records and electronic banking as evidence, to apply a travel ban, to detain a suspect, and other extraordinary rights to uphold the law.

The idea of appointing the KPK as a super body was based on the understanding that corruption is considered an extraordinary crime and therefore must be handled differently from an ordinary crime. That is why, the KPK has been given so many extraordinary powers.

It is high time that the President evaluated the performance of the Corruption Eradication Team. If he finds the team to be ineffective, he must retract the presidential decree and reinstate the KPK's original function.

What has been done by the lawyers association in the light of the fact that two lawyers have been involved in such scandalous incidents?. Practically nothing. It is public knowledge that the practice of lawyers acting as brokers for their clients is perceived nowadays as the norm.

Lawyers who refuse to act as brokers are considered stupid, idealist, abnormal and become a target of derision and ridicule.

At a time when the government, NGOs, law enforcement agencies such as the police, prosecutors and judges are discuss good corporate governance and trying to implement it, the lawyers associations are silent. They are not interested in institutional reform.

Indonesia cannot enforce the law without a clean and honest advocates profession and law enforcement agencies.

The writer is the chairman of the Indonesian Legal Studies Foundation (ILSeF).