Legal system decay reflects society: Expert

By Ahmad Noerhori

JAKARTA (JP): A judge dodged a shoe thrown at him by a disgruntled plaintiff. A jailed business tycoon paid a warden a small amount of money and walked out free. A lawyer took a gun into a courtroom.

These are frustrating snapshots of Indonesia's judiciary. But alerting people to the situation is more frustrating, according to legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo.

"It's like shouting in the middle of the desert," said Harkristuti, who is head of the criminal law department at the University of Indonesia's Law School.

"All we can do is hope that someone might listen. What else? We're no competition with political interest," she told The Jakarta Post Monday.

The hope for a better and more transparent legal system is a precious dream for Harkristuti.

"What is happening today in the courtrooms reflects what's happening in society. Discrimination, oppression, arrogance. And everybody has their share in the creation of it," said the matron of a department dominated by men.

Harkristuti, 41, laments the way people view the legal system.

"Everybody is thinking about cost and benefits in this matter. If you can settle a case now by bribing, why wait another day in uncertainty?" she said. "It's no longer important to find who is to blame."

She said human resources development is an uphill battle. "Education should be the key, not lectures or orientations but public education packaged nicely in the mass media."

Harkristuti obtained her doctorate in 1991 from a small American university, Sam Houston State University in Texas which is home to the largest criminal justice college in the United States.

She now transfers the knowledge she obtained abroad to her students.

"Sometimes they ask whether the law is like what I say. They understand, though, that comparing a lecture to reality is like comparing apples to oranges. They are different."

She said her students do not want to work as attorneys or judges in government institutions. "They say, it's dirty out there. Corrupt. They prefer to be corporate lawyers, a position which has relatively no moral obligation."

A large number of students at Harkristuti's school end up in major corporate law firms with huge salaries. In the last 10 years, not more than a dozen students chose to enter government legal institutions.

"Only those with strong hearts should enter government legal institutions," Harkristuti said.

Although she blames society in general, Harkristuti believes the government has played a significant role in the decay of Indonesia's judiciary.

Only in the 1993 Broad Guidelines of State Policies, which is Indonesia's development blueprint, did the government mention the need for law development. In previous guidelines, law was mentioned only as a small part of other issues.

For instance, in the 1988 guidelines, law development was put under the section for politics, government apparatus, law information, press and foreign affairs. In the 1993 State Guidelines, law had its own section. The State Guidelines is formed every five years.

Politics

Harkristuti said that political issues always seem to overshadow legal ones.

"Everything depends too much on people's political interests," she said. "Academics like me became hoarse shouting against (the recent decision) of Chief Justice Sarwata to send (labor leader) Muchtar Pakpahan (to jail). Did it matter?"

Last year, the Supreme Court granted request for a trial review filed by the Medan State Court indicting labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan. Legal experts said it was illegal because, according to the Criminal Code, prosecutors are not allowed to file a trial review.

Harkristuti also said the Criminal Code, an inheritance of the Dutch colonial government era, was outdated. First implemented in 1886, it was modified in 1946 to become Indonesia's first and only Criminal Code.

Legal experts from across the country created a 600-article draft that became Indonesia's first original Criminal Code in 1993. Twelve years of hard work seemed to have bore no fruits.

Until today, the government has yet to file it to the House of Representatives.

"I don't know where the draft is now. What I know is that someone has made changes to it," said Harkristuti. She was not in the team but believed the team consisted of Indonesia's best legal experts.

"Now even the creators cannot recognize it. They are like (fashion designer) Harry Dharsono who can no longer recognize a dress of his design," she said.

Revolution

"I once thought a top to down overhaul such as a revolution was the answer to the structural problem in Indonesian law. But after a while I realized it would only make people suffer," she said.

"The common people will be the victims, while the elite group will just fly with their jets and their Swiss bank accounts to their mansions in California.

"We have to empower every institution in society, affirm our commitment that this is for the people," she said.

"It's a slow process. But I know there are people out there who are willing to listen."