Reform the judiciary

Reform the judiciary

Last week's court ruling acquitting businessman Djoko Tjandra
of corruption charges in the high-profile Bank Bali scandal is a
major setback for the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Here is a case which has consumed a great deal of national and
international attention since coming to light in July. This case
has all the indications of a conspiracy at the highest levels,
involving top politicians of the time and affecting taxpayers'
money as well as that of the International Monetary Fund. For the
South Jakarta District Court to dismiss the case on the technical
grounds that this is a commercial dispute and should be tried as
a civil rather than a criminal case is an insult to the
intelligence of anyone with a sense of justice.

The court ruling has sent a dire warning to the government and
the police that other corruption cases they are currently
pursuing may simply be dismissed if they fall into the hands of
the wrong judges, like those who heard Djoko Tjandra's case. It
has undermined the investigation and prosecution of all the other
suspects in the Bank Bali scandal. But more than that, the ruling
has put a large dent on the government's anticorruption campaign.
It has sent the wrong signal to other alleged corrupters,
including former president Soeharto and his children and cronies,
who must now feel that they too will likely go free.

While Attorney General Marzuki Darusman must take some of the
blame for the incompetence of his staff in preparing Djoko's
case, there is no denying that the biggest problem lies with the
judges at the South Jakarta District Court, who are completely
insensitive to the feelings of the public. If there is any
valuable lesson to learn from this legal travesty, it is that the
case confirms our suspicion that reform has yet to touch the
judiciary.

This is not the first time the judiciary has acted in ways
that run counter to the reformist trend, even when one of the
primary goals of reform is to return the rule of law, or in
popular parlance the supremacy of law, to the country. On several
occasions, including Djoko's case, it was the judiciary more than
any other institution in the country that made a mockery of the
law. The judiciary appears to be completely out of sync with the
rest of the nation.

This should come as no surprise, however. The judiciary,
particularly the courts, is still run mostly by people from the
old regime. Like politicians of that recent bygone era, these
judges were notorious for blatantly supporting the tyrannical New
Order government. The judiciary is the last bastion of the
Soeharto regime, and this goes a long way toward explaining why
many of the efforts to prosecute corrupters and human rights
abusers from that era have failed upon reaching the courts.

The judiciary is the only government branch that has yet to be
reformed. The legislative branch was reformed through the
country's first democratic general election in over 40 years in
June. Consequently, the nation was given a government of the
people, in the true sense of the word, with the election of
President Abdurrahman in October.

The judiciary, however, has shown resistance to change. The
Supreme Court last week presented a list of candidates to fill
the upcoming vacancies on the court, including the position of
chief justice. Not surprisingly, all of the presented candidates
were sitting judges. A notable exclusion from the list was
Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, a retired judge with an impeccably clean
record and reputation who was also President Abdurrahman's choice
for chief justice. It was with relief that we learned the
government quickly came up last week with its own list of
candidates, a list that includes not only Benjamin but also
Todung Mulya Lubis, a lawyer who has consistently fought to clean
up the judiciary from the outside.

President Abdurrahman has proven his ability to reform the
powerful military by replacing its top leadership. His maneuvers
on this front were accompanied by charges of meddling in the
military's internal affairs, charges he dismissed. Now he is
about to step on more toes by targeting the judiciary. The
court's decision to acquit Djoko Tjandra has only served to
illustrate where the President's next priority should lie now
that he has brought the military under control. Without reforming
the judiciary, all current investigations of corruption and human
rights abuses are likely doomed to fail. And we can all forget
about the rule of law.

Unlike the military, however, reforming the judiciary is
outside the President's constitutional powers. Abdurrahman will
not likely be able to effect judicial reform single-handedly the
way he did with the military, even if he has the support of the
public. He will need the help of the House of Representatives. In
fact, it will take a joint effort on the part of the executive
and legislative branches to bring the judiciary in line with the
reformist trend. The ball is now in the House's court.