Prosecutors and judges

Prosecutors and judges

From Warta Kota

Case after case of collusion, corruption and nepotism under the New Order regime have been disclosed, for example the case of the Forestry and Plantations Ministry. The latest ones are Bank Indonesia liquidity support loans.

The disclosure of the two cases is accompanied by a list of the names of the persons recommended for investigation at the Attorney General's office. They are all cronies and family members of former president Soeharto. Moreover, these persons are reported to be involved in other cases as well, like Soeharto is under suspicion of power abuse through the three foundations he led.

Is the Attorney General's office ready to investigate all the cases?

We know that one of the reasons for uncertainty under the law in this country is the collusive, corruptive and nepotistic practices of the Attorney General's office. Without lowering my respect for the intention and spirit of Attorney General Marzuki Darusman to enforce the law, I am rather pessimistic about the spirit of his subordinates; they have been so long in power.

The Attorney General announced recently that he would reassign a number of prosecutors, but that would not be sufficient. He should also bring guilty officials in his ranks to court. This method would be useful as a deterrent.

If members of the police now are penalized and even brought to court for violating the law, the time also has come to apply the rules to other enforcers of the law (prosecutors and judges). It is a public secret that the three pillars of the law "are fond of" selling their power, but of the two other institutions (prosecutors and judges) one hardly hears about legal steps taken against the perpetrators of violations in their ranks.

B. SUNARYONO

Jakarta