Power, money rule RI's judiciary: Experts

Power, money rule RI's judiciary: Experts

Bernie K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With a United Nations fact-finding mission yet to set foot on
Indonesian soil, legal experts said it would likely find here a
judiciary far from being independent, and hostage to money and
politics.

Legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo of the University of
Indonesia said corruption, and government and legislative
interference were commonplace in the Indonesian courts.

"We know how bad things are here, the police, prosecutors,
lawyers and judges," Harkristuti said over the weekend.

So does the government. At its request, the UN will send its
special rapporteur Dato' Param Cumaraswamy from July 15 to July
25 on a mission to assess the country's legal system.

He will report his findings to the UN Human Rights Commission
during its annual session in April 2003.

But even before he has to arrive in Jakarta, the international
community is already well aware of Indonesia's poor track record.

The stream of bad news that has flowed out of the country's
commercial court has deterred foreign investors. And the UN has
persistently asked for headway to be made in the human rights
tribunal on atrocities committed during the 1999 East Timor
violence.

Cumaraswamy's planned mission comes at a time when the Jakarta
Commercial Court has once again drawn international attention
with its controversial bankruptcy ruling against insurance firm
PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia (AJMI) of Canada.

AJMI's downfall is yet another clear example of Indonesia's
imploding legal system. Other examples abound. Last year, the
International Finance Corporation (IFC) stumbled over what it
charged were fictitious creditors blocking its attempt to have a
local company declared bankrupt.

Subsequently, the IFC suspended its investments here while its
affiliate, the World Bank, trimmed its lending to Indonesia.

Such cases have made investors wary, making it hard for the
government to attract them amid an already adverse business
climate. Political instability and rampant security threats are
other risks investors are trying to avoid when they decide not to
come here.

Bankruptcy law expert Rahmat Bastian said that just about
every case that went to the Commercial Court ended up
disadvantaging foreign investors.

All of which helps to explain why foreign companies try to
seek justice outside Indonesia whenever possible. Such moves are
already bearing fruit. Singaporean and U.S. courts have issued
orders to freeze Indonesian assets, something virtually unheard
of in the local courts.

Rahmat said that he saw the judges during the Soeharto era
dispensing fairer justice then they do now. "Today it seems as if
there is no need to be ashamed when taking sides."

While this was apparent in cases where bribery took place, he
said that in cases filed against the government, the judges too
tended to side with the government. "The government almost never
looses a case logged in the State Administrative Court," he said.

According to him, judges appear not to care much about whether
their verdicts were justifiable.

Harkristuti added that some judges felt they could translate
the law the way they saw fit. She said it did happen that judges
passed opposing verdicts in two identical cases.

"We're loosing the parameters that defines justice," she said.

She said the Indonesian courts were also prone to government
interference as a consequence of politics coming in the way.

Lack of independence, critics said, was also evident in the
case of Indonesia's human rights tribunal. The trial against
military officials implicated in the 1999 violence in East Timor,
they said, had come under pressure from the military.

Legislator Muhammad Abdul Mochtar said he hoped Indonesia
could make the most of Cumaraswamy's visit.

"What we need is thorough legal reforms," said Mochtar, a
member of the House of Representatives' Commission II, which is
in charge of home and legal affairs.