Power and the law

The various statements which have been made by Minister of Justice Muladi have had a refreshing effect. Having expressed his determination to put an end to the practice of collusion in the courts, he went a step further by saying that those in power were not to interfere in judicial affairs.

A strong judiciary cannot be achieved only by eradicating corruption and collusion that debase the court system; the legal system must also be free of intervention by those in power, the minister said after attending a senate meeting at Diponegoro University in Semarang yesterday (Sunday).

The presence of a judiciary that is free of collusion, corruption and intervention by the executive branch of the government is an ideal that belongs not only to Muladi but to all of us. For this reason, powerful support for the idea is certain to come from our entire society. The remaining problem is how to accomplish this idea in real life.

Muladi's first step, by inviting our legal community to help draw up a concept of judiciary reform, is a suitable beginning. The various studies that have been made on reform indicate that the ability to establish a working coalition among proreform groups is often the key to whether the effort will be successful.

In this same frame of thought, Muladi might do well to broaden his coalition umbrella to include not only the legal community, but the media, intellectuals, the military, students and other groups in society as well. The point is that concerns about the legal system belong not only to the legal community but to the nation as a whole.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta