Judicial corruption: Where to go?
Judicial corruption: Where to go?
Todung Mulya Lubis, Jakarta
Frans Winarta's article on judicial corruption (The Jakarta
Post, Oct. 31, 2005) lays much of the blame for the tragic state
of the Indonesian judiciary precisely where it belongs -- with
those in the legal profession who work to undermine the judicial
system.
It is indeed a tragic state of affairs when lawyers can openly
boast that they can guarantee a judicial outcome, and taunt their
opponents with the inevitability that they will lose, not because
of legal arguments, but because of the inadequacy of judicial
salaries.
It is a tragic state of affairs when two courts in two
different parts of the country reach virtually word-for-word
judgments, each totally absurd as a matter of jurisprudence, and
where the only link between the two courts is the plaintiffs'
lawyer. The odds of those identical judgments being genuinely
arrived at are similar to the odds of a room full of young
children with typewriters accidentally creating the works of
Shakespeare.
Yet all these things have happened in a group of cases in
which I am involved.
We, like many other defendants in cases brought by businesses
seeking to avoid their obligations, have taken comfort that while
the lower courts are riddled with corruption and that we would
inevitably lose at that level, we could at least appeal to the
Supreme Court there was a good chance that our cases would be
heard on their merits.
Now that too seems doubtful. Allegations of corruption
involving a number of senior justices at the Supreme Court has
caused a lot of anxiety among all justice seekers.
The cost of corruption to the Indonesian economy is enormous.
One of the elements that is invariably considered by foreign
creditors in calculating their interest rates for lending into
Indonesia is the reliability and transparency of Indonesia's
judicial system.
Indonesia's current external debt is US$136 billion. If, as a
result of these problems in the courts, foreign creditors were to
factor in an additional 1 percent into the cost of lending to
Indonesia, the annual cost to Indonesia -- based on its current
debt -- would be $1.36 billion. That is over $3.5 million a day.
There have now been a number of instances where defaulting
debtors have made use of the Indonesian court system simply to
avoid meeting their obligations to international investors. This
practice is attracting attention among the international investor
community, and is particularly worrying since incidents like
these can only serve to deter international investors, on whose
investment Indonesia's continuing economic recovery relies.
A fair and independent judicial system is a cornerstone for a
modernizing economy. An honest and trustworthy legal profession
is a necessary prerequisite to an effective judicial system.
Although the news that the Corruption Eradication Commission
is now looking into the practices of the judiciary is welcome,
without the support of a corruption-free legal profession, its
work will be seriously undermined.
Indonesia is blessed with many highly intelligent, capable,
expert and honest lawyers, some of whom I am honored to call my
friends. If the rest of the legal profession could follow their
example it would be an important step towards achieving the
President's objective of an honest legal system where obligations
are fairly enforced by an effective judiciary.
The writer is a senior attorney at the Lubis, Santosa and
Maulana law firm. He can be reached at tmulya@cbn.net.id.