Marianna, Syamsuhadi elected deputies

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.