Prosecutors berated for rally in support for boss

Prosecutors berated for rally in support for boss

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State prosecutors have come under fire for showing blind support
for their boss, Attorney General M.A. Rachman, amid mounting
demands for his resignation following his failure to declare all
of his assets.

A retired prosecutor and a legal expert branded the
prosecutors unprofessional on Thursday, and said their behavior
would do nothing to help eradicate corruption.

Antonius Sujata, a former deputy attorney general for special
crimes, and Todung Mulya Lubis, who was once assigned to audit
the Attorney General's Office, both said that such blind support
could backfire on the office.

"The prosecutors have been mixing their professional and
personal affairs ... such support is counterproductive because it
has sparked a negative impression among other legal practitioners
and strengthened the public resolve.

"Moreover, it will further reduce the people's trust in the
office as the vanguard institution in the war against
corruption," Antonius told The Jakarta Post.

Law No. 5/1991 on the prosecutorial authority requires the
office's officials to support the attorney general in the
carrying out of his duties because, as is explicitly stated in
the law, the prosecutorial authority is collective based upon a
hierarchical chain of command.

However, according to Antonius, this provision did not justify
the widely publicized support for Rachman in respect of his
personal affairs.

Antonius, who chairs the Ombudsman Commission, was discharged
from his deputy attorney general and later took early retirement
after he declared former president Soeharto a corruption suspect
in 1999, less than a year after the former ruler handed over the
presidency to his deputy B.J. Habibie.

Todung took a harsher stance, condemning the declaration of
solidarity and support by all the deputy attorneys general and
the Union of Indonesian Prosecutors (Persaja), which he said only
reflected the militaristic culture in the office.

As a public institution that required transparency and
accountability, he argued, such willingness to support a superior
or colleague to the bitter end was no longer acceptable.

"There should be no such support given in a profession.
Especially in Rachman's case where his subordinates should
support the success of the probe and announce the results,
whatever they may be, to show their professionalism," Todung told
the Post.

The attorney general has come under spotlight after the Public
Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) established a special
inquiry to follow up on a tip from a whistle-blower that Rachman
failed to report a luxury house in the Graha Cinere housing
complex, Depok.

Reports said President Megawati Soekarnoputri had summoned
Rachman twice ordering him to clarify the situation or else
resign.

Acting assistant attorney general Bachtiar Fachry Nasution
argued on Wednesday that the prosecutors had displayed their
solidarity for Rahman to counter speculation that had discredited
the office and caused confusion among the prosecutors in regional
offices.

He also said the prosecutors' union would set up an ethics
committee to investigate the whistle-blower, Kito Irkhamni, who
was previously a contractor and who built the Cinere house for
Rachman, but not the attorney general, who admitted to having
charged fees for legal consultancy work for East Java businessmen
when he was serving in the province.

"The Attorney General heads the union's supervisory board.
Besides, we still have to check whether those East Java
businesspeople who are said to have given him money were his
relatives or not," Fachry told reporters.

But Antonius rejected such an ethics committee, saying that
the 1991 law already provided for the establishment of a
disciplinary committee in the office to serve as a forum in which
prosecutors accused of wrong-doing could defend themselves.

"Instead of trying to protect members through such a show of
support, the association should concentrate on its main function,
which is to improve its members' professionalism," he remarked.