Justice must be brought closer to the people: Official

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enforcers, outdated laws and people's ignorance of the law.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)