Law school graduates bribe their way to success

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The legal profession has been tarnished lately by several cases involving the court system, while media reports have put the cases in the spotlight.

The first involves lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi. He accused former lawyers of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung of having attempted to create a conspiracy to cover their client's involvement in the alleged misuse of Rp 40 billion in nonbudgetary funds of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

The second case involves Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's lawyer, Elza Syarief, who has been detained by the Jakarta Police for allegedly bribing witnesses to lie before the court.

Another case involves John Waliry, the lawyer of Akbar Tanjung who shouted "bangsat!" ("bastard!") at a prosecutor during a hearing in the House Speaker's trial.

However, the poor image of the profession has not deterred law school graduates from becoming lawyers, who now total about 15,000 and are registered at 25 high courts across the country.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of people visited the Jakarta Court at Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta. The law graduates, who had taken an examination to become lawyers on April 17, had come to see the results.

This year's exam, which was organized jointly by the Supreme Court and the Indonesian Advocate Steering Committee (KKAI), was the first since 1999.

Across the country, there were over 8,000 applicants who took the exam. Of 3,324 applicants who passed, over 1,100 were from Jakarta.

Previously, the exam was administered by the Supreme Court only. But reportedly, in order to reduce bribery, this year's exam was carried out jointly by the two institutions.

However, bribery is still widespread in the lawyer recruitment process.

Dedi, not his real name, looked happy when he found his name on the list of applicants who had passed the exam. Earlier, he told The Jakarta Post that he had paid Rp 10 million to a lawyer, who claimed to be a member of KKAI.

"It worked," he said with a smile, referring to the bribe.

Wati, another applicant, who earlier claimed to have bribed an official of the Supreme Court with Rp 15 million, also passed the exam.

"It's not bribery. I've just attempted to smooth my path to becoming a lawyer," she told the Post.

Another applicant, who also passed, said he had paid Rp 3 million to get the papers from a lawyer before he took the exam.

Head of the legal practice division of the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) Binziad Kadafi said that the committee had failed to establish transparency in administering the exam.

"We have no idea about the exam system and what is required from applicants in order to pass. Also, there is nowhere to file a complaint after the exam is over," he said.

However, member of the executive committee of the bar exam lawyer Otto Hasibuan brushed aside accusations that some applicants had cheated in order to pass.

"I guarantee there was no unfairness in the exam," he asserted.

Those applicants who passed the exam would be allowed to practice as lawyers after they passed a second exam on the lawyers'code of ethics.