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have acknowledged that many Indonesian laws, some inherited from the Dutch colonial administration, have become outdated with the changing environment.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)