Professionalism needed to help check bribery

Professionalism needed to help check bribery

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman proposed
yesterday that the professionalism of police, prosecutors and
judges be improved to help minimize bribery in the legal system.

He told journalists after meeting with visiting Malaysian
Chief Justice Tan Sri Dato' Haji Mohd Eusoff Chin that judges
were not alone in taking bribes, a phenomenon that is believed to
be rife in the local legal system.

"We need to make preventive efforts to better the integrity
and professionalism of judges, prosecutors, police corps as well
as lawyers," he said.

The minister admitted that small salary levels are also partly
to blame for bribery practices, which have come under public
scrutiny again over the past weeks.

Eusoff Chin, who is here to study the local legal system, told
reporters that bribery did not exist in the Malaysian legal
system, largely because of effective supervision.

"As far as I know, no bribery cases have been addressed in the
Malaysian courts," Eusoff Chin said.

He said that the salaries of Malaysian judges were more than
enough to cover their daily needs. "Their salaries are based on
an average Malaysian's purchasing power," he said.

However, he declined to reveal the average salary of judges in
his country, repeating that the amount was good enough for them.

Eusoff Chin said that the Malaysian government controls the
attitudes and performances of its judges by means of their
established code of ethics.

He said that there had been no judges terminated for bribery
or attitude problems. "Only several judges have been ordered to
retire due to illness," he said.

Eusoff Chin said he was here for a comparative study on both
countries' legal systems, including the procedure of trials from
the lowest courts to the highest court.

During his three-day visit, ending today, he met Indonesian
Chief Justice R. Soerjono and had an opportunity to attend a
trial at the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday.

He also paid a courtesy call on Attorney General Singgih
yesterday.

"We probably will adopt Indonesia's legal procedures, though
made applicable to the Malaysian legal system," he said.

Mr. Chin also said that he would like to learn how Indonesia
can use Bahasa Indonesia in its legal system.

"I notice that many legal terms have been translated into
Indonesian, instead of using Dutch terms," he said.

Many Indonesian laws were made during the Dutch colonial era.

Eusoff Chin said that in Malaysia, people still fail to use a
homogeneous language at different court levels. Although the
lower courts use Malay in their trials, English is used for their
more difficult cases, while some of the appellate courts still
choose English over Malay.

Eusoff Chin is scheduled to pay a visit to the Agency for the
Development of National Law today.(imn)