Legal awareness must be fostered

It is a fact that the application of a legal system in Indonesia at present is still weak, as well as biased toward and vulnerable to political pressure and lacking in the full enforcement of legal certainty across the country, a condition which makes it difficult for the community to obtain justice. As such, we, lawyers associated under the New Indonesia Lawyers Club, an organization set up on May 4, 2000, hereby reaffirm our resolve as follows: 1. It is of great necessity now to foster legal awareness through a consolidated mission to spread a legal culture, in the form of forums for the popularization of a legal culture, the improvement of the global networking of lawyers and a continued updating of the professionalism of lawyers in the framework of national unity and the integrity of the Indonesian nation and state. This it toward a view to rectifying irregular practices in Indonesia, such as the denial of the basic values of the Indonesian nation, leading to reduced transparency in the processes by which political decisions are made and a disregard for legal sovereignty and the principle of equality; 2. Therefore, as agents of change, we must, in a constructive manner, be able to think in an integrated way and be in possession of legal awareness regarding law enforcement, through a wide variety of efforts to undertake sustainable reform in the legal culture.

It is our hope that all parties concerned will be inspired by the above to ensure that a system of legal enforcement may be properly applied.

DR. R.M. TALIB PUSPOKUSUMO et al

Jakarta