Legal system must adapt to changing environment: Try
Legal system must adapt to changing environment: Try
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian legal system must adapt to the
rapidly changing environment to answer the challenges of the
time, Vice President Try Sutrisno said yesterday.
"The dynamic development of our society, which has been
undergoing rapid changes in the political, economic and
sociocultural fields clearly necessitates an equally rapid
adjustment to the national legal system," Try said in an address
to a national coordinating meeting of the Ministry of Justice.
"In an era that is changing at a geometrical pace, it is
impossible for us to deal with these changes if our (legal)
system is moving at an arithmetical pace," he said.
Officials have acknowledged that many Indonesian laws, some
inherited from the Dutch colonial administration, have become
outdated with the changing environment.
The House of Representatives meanwhile is poorly equipped to
draft, debate and enact bills. Every bill that has passed through
the House in the past 30 years was initiated by the government.
Chairman of the Agency for the Development of National Law
Soenaryati Haryono said that by 2004 the country needs to enact
or reform at least 167 laws. "We can enact between 12 to 15 laws
a year," she said.
Legal experts say many of the recent economic and political
troubles have their origins in the weakness or absence of law.
Economically, for example, big businesses have grown virtually
unchecked because of the absence of monopoly legislation.
Indonesia must also reform many of its economic and business laws
to keep pace with market globalization.
Politically a debate about whether the nation should discard
the 1962 anti-subversion law, which has been used by the
government to silence its critics, has emerged.
Try listed a number of areas that are still not properly
covered by the legal system. They include laws on taxes, the
stock market, investment, trading agreements, labor, the
environment, oceanography and banking.
He also cited copyright protection as one area that the legal
community must cover, particularly to protect Indonesia's
handicrafts.
"We must not let foreigners claim the copyright to our
original handicrafts," he said, adding that such cases had
occurred before.
The establishment of the national law system requires extra
work and great effort from everyone, but mainly the legal
community, Try said.
"In dealing with the global trend and growing phenomenon, the
national legal system is supposed to be able to accommodate and
answer all challenges, as well as anticipate the trend of
development," he continued. "The national legal system also has
to be flexible and dynamic, but firm and certain at the same
time."
Try said that in cases where existing laws could not deal with
certain problems, those in the legal profession must close the
loopholes, guided by moral force and conscience.
He said that the most important thing about law enforcement is
the people behind the legal system.
Strong and obedient law enforcers and human resources will
strengthen the nation and constitution, he added. (imn)