Punish judges who fail to declare their assets: NGO

JAKARTA (JP): A non-governmental organization involved in the effort to create a just, fair, and independent judicial process has urged the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) to take resolute action against judges who fail to declare assets.

A. Muhammad Asrun, the coordinator of Judicial Watch, told a press conference on Wednesday that the failure to return the forms supplied by the KPKPN meant that the judges themselves, who were supposed to make up the vanguard in the fight to promote the supremacy of law, were in fact violating the law.

"Our data shows that out of 2,571 declarations distributed to judges nationwide by the KPKPN in June, 2001, only about 100 have been returned to the commission," Asrun said.

"The delay in returning the declarations clearly shows that the judges have no desire to uphold the law and promote good governance. They could also be charged with committing a crime as they are trying to conceal their wealth from the public," he said.

Asrun further urged the Supreme Court, along with the government, to instruct the judges to hasten the return of the declarations or face sanctions should they ignore the instructions.

"The sanctions, for example, could be imposed in the form of a reevaluation of the promotions of uncooperative judges. We are setting a deadline of the end of this month for the Supreme Court to issue the instruction, he said, adding that should the Supreme Court ignore the warning, they would go to the People's Consultative Assembly's working committee so that the latter could examine the Supreme Court's performance.

Based on Judicial Watch data, the approximately 100 court officials who had returned the declarations had assets ranging in value from Rp 179,555 (US$19.95) to Rp 4 billion.

The richest court official was Sukhyar Nana Sujana, a clerk of the Karawang District Court in West Java, who declared assets worth Rp 4.964 billion, while the poorest was Stevanus Tasane, a clerk of the Sumedang District Court, also in West Java.

The second richest was Mucshin, a Supreme Court justice, who declared assets worth Rp 3.19 billion, while Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan reported assets worth Rp 678.6 million.

Among the other richest persons associated with the court system were Justices Marianna Sutadi Nasution and Kahardiman, and former justice minister Muladi, all of whom declared assets valued at between Rp 2.69 billion and Rp 2.88 billion.

The late Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita and Justice Benjamin Mankoedilaga declared assets of Rp 1.110 billion and Rp 2.089 billion respectively.

The declarations, however, remained subject to verification as the KPKPN had yet to conduct any investigations to find out whether they were accurate, Asrun said.

Meanwhile, Judicial Watch's advocacy division head Margarito Kamis said the reluctance on the part of the judges to report their assets displayed their arrogance.

"The judges continue to maintain a dictatorial regime such as existed under the New Order, in which good connections and obscurity were everything," he said. (tso)