Marianna, Syamsuhadi elected deputies

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Court has elected two new deputy chief justices to help repair the highest judicial tribunal's badly-tarnished image and speed up its sluggish internal reform process.

Marianna Sutadi Nasution and Syamsuhadi Irsad, two out of the 40 justices sitting on the Supreme Court, emerged as the victors in the second round of what appeared to be a free and fair selection process held at the Supreme Court building on Jl. Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Marianna gained 28 of the 38 votes in the first round and Syamsuhadi won 20 votes in the second round. Other candidates, including German Hoediarto and Paulus Effendy Lotulung, failed to win major support in either round.

Marianna is currently the court's director of supervision while Syamsuhadi is a specialist in religious law.

All of the candidates pledged loyalty to Chief Justice Bagir Manan and support the blueprint for the reform of Supreme Court when presenting their visions and mission statements before the election.

Syamsuhadi said he would be a good mediator and was skilled in coordinating with his subordinates.

The blueprint, which was designed by a non-governmental organization and financed by a number of foreign donors, has won the full support of the chief justice. But, the candidates had little to say about how they would implement it when presenting their vision and mission statements.

Newly-enacted Law No. 4/2004 on the Supreme Court requires the Court to have two deputy chief justice posts. One of these deputies will have the principal duty of assisting the chief justice to case management, while the other deputy's main duty will be to handle non-judicial matters.

The judicial system here has come under sustained fire for widespread corruption.

Bagir has yet to determine which of the deputy chief justices will get which job.

Before the law's enactment, the supreme court had only one deputy. This position has been vacant since deputy chief justice Taufik retired in 2002.

Lawyer Iskandar Sonhadji expressed his skepticism that the two new deputies would be able to help accelerate the sluggish pace of internal reform in the Supreme Court.

"The election was transparent but it was not accountable. I am wondering whether they will be able to play a significant role in the Supreme Court, especially having regard to their "pledges of allegiance".

I'm not sure that they are courageous enough to make new breakthroughs in our legal system without the approval of the chief justice," he told The Jakarta Post.

According to Iskandar, entrusting the chief justice alone to handle internal reform was also too risky as the success of such a program should not depend on one person.

He said Bagir was a reformist but he would be unable to do everything he wanted to do as his reforms had raised the hackles of subordinates unwilling to see the gravy train being pulled away from them.

"The court leadership must be brave enough to reprimand subordinates who fail to support the reform program," he said.