Lawyers call for one bar associations
Lawyers call for one bar associations
JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Indonesian Lawyers (IPHI)
called on Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman to make one last
ditch to unite the various groups of lawyers into a single
association.
"We welcome and will support the minister's efforts to
establish one bar association in Indonesia," IPHI chairman Abdul
Aziz Mohamad Balhmar said on Wednesday.
Aziz said Indonesian lawyers must unite before foreign
lawyers begin arriving to practice in Indonesia, which will be
possible under the newly ratified General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT) which comes into force on January 1.
Greater trade conflicts between Indonesian and foreign
companies are likely with the greater trade liberalization
mandated under GATT and this means that Indonesian lawyers would
often have to deal with foreign lawyers.
Oetojo in his a year-end media conference on Tuesday
emphasized that the government also wants to see only a single
bar association because that would make supervision and
communication with lawyers a great deal easier.
The minister said he was prepared to act as a catalyst for
the establishment of the united bar association.
A single association for every profession is also mandated
by a 1985 legislation on mass organizations. The government for
example will only recognize one association of journalists
(Indonesian Journalists Union), one labor union (All Indonesia
Workers Union).
Uniting a bunch of lawyers however has proven more
difficult, in part because of divergence interests of people in
the government.
The first attempt at uniting the various lawyers
organizations was in 1985 with the establishment of Ikadin, the
Indonesian Bar Association, which came at the initiative of the
chief justice and the minister of justice of the time.
Ikadin however was beset by internal disputes and in 1990,
135 of its 850 members resigned and formed a rival organization,
the Indonesian Advocates' Association (AAI), with the blessing of
the minister of justice of the time.
In 1991, supported by the minister of justice and minister
of home affairs of the time, AAI and five lawyers'
organizations -- IPHI, LBPH Kosgoro, BPKH MKGR, LKBH Trisula and
LPPH -- joined forces to establish Poperi, the Association of
Indonesian Lawyers Organizations.
But the exclusion of Ikadin undermined its claim to be the
sole umbrella organization for the lawyers' profession.
IPHI was established in 1987 mostly by young lawyers who
were disgruntled over being denied membership in Kadin which
imposed strict criteria. It has since grown to bring membership
to over 5,000 lawyers in 25 provinces.
Aziz set one term for the establishment of a single bar
association -- that it does not discriminate against junior
lawyers, the very reason IPHI was established in 1987.
"The bar association must accept and consider all lawyers
equally," he said. "It must accommodate all lawyers and legal
consultants, whether they are law school graduates or not."
"We might not have established IPHI if Ikadin had accepted
our membership in 1987," he added.
Meanwhile Yan Juanda Saputra, a deputy chairman of IPHI,
called for the enactment of a law on advocates first before any
new effort is made at establishing a single bar association.
"The law on advocates will help direct the establishment of
a single bar association." he said. (imn)