Justice must be brought closer to the people: Official

JAKARTA (JP): The judiciary should be closer to the people and law enforcers should be more aware of their rights and duties, a senior Supreme Court official said at a seminar yesterday.

"The judiciary should ensure that there is national and international certainty and predictability of law for people in search of legal protection," said Paulus E. Lotulung, the head of the Supreme Court's department of research and development.

Speaking at the second day of a three-day seminar organized by the association of alumni of French colleges and the French Embassy, Paulus said that legal practitioners must remember that the nation should be governed by the sovereignty of law, not power.

But Paulus acknowledged there were many obstacles in the way of realizing these ideals, including the "poor quality" of law enforcers, outdated laws and people's ignorance of the law.

Law enforcers are not fully aware of their rights and duties, he said, adding that this encourages people to break laws.

He cited a number of examples, including bus drivers violating traffic regulations: "This very simple example is actually a veil covering a more dire picture of the nation's overall legal condition."

All elements in court proceedings contribute to the sorry state of the legal system, Paulus said.

"This is a really complicated issue," he said, "but court proceedings are a barometer of whether a state is based on law or not."

The three-day seminar, titled The 21st Outlook of Indonesian Development, was opened Wednesday by Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto.

State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie said Wednesday that national development in the next century would cause the size of Indonesia's middle class rise to 95 percent of the national population.

"The strive to raise the size of the middle class to 95 percent will be part of the nation's macro-strategy of human resources development to face 21st century challenges," Habibie said while opening the seminar.

The seminar, attended by 100 people, will conclude today. The organizers plans to hold a congress today and launch the association of French alumni. (26)