Sahlan fights against 'court mafia'

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Sahlan Said, 56, is just an ordinary judge at Yogyakarta District Court, without an important position.

But many see him as special and extraordinary, in the sense that he is one of only a few judges who have the guts to fight what is popularly called the "court Mafia," with regard to the promotion of judges.

His own struggle has motivated him to seek early retirement instead of promotion as a higher judge at Kendari High Court in Southeast Sulawesi.

"I don't see it as promotion at all. Rather, it is a punishment that is packaged in such a way as to appear like promotion," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

"No, they do not want to promote me. They just want to dump me. They want to send me far away from mass media access."

The allegation is strengthened by the fact that he had to spend at least four years in his present position before he could gain promotion.

Besides, he said, the promotion came after he repeatedly and consistently revealed the existence of a "Mafia" in the court, which took an active role in the unfair promotion of judges.

One such criticism was articulated at a World Bank forum in July 3 this year, to which he was invited to talk about the Indonesian courts, including the Mafia.

"I was warned then that the World Bank had also invited top government officials from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, meaning that my superiors would be there to listen to my presentation. But I said it was all right, I was prepared to take the risk.

"So, I expected that sooner or later I would receive such a 'covert' punishment," said Sahlan, who was once jailed, together with novelist Ashadi Siregar and historian Anhar Gonggong, for his involvement in the Malari student demonstration in 1975 that was transformed into an anti-Japanese riot.

Sahlan argues that the court Mafia influences the promotion of judges. He concludes that judges who received unfair promotion would most likely have also become part of the court Mafia.

"I told the World Bank that it had provided aid in the wrong direction. I suggested it give assistance according to need, for example, by providing help to control bad or unscrupulous judges, not by providing computers or the like," said Sahlan, who has been named as a prospective Constitutional Court judge.

Sahlan has popularized the infamous term S3, (sowan, sungkem and sajen) to describe the way most judges in Indonesia struggle to gain promotion via unfair means.

Sowan in Javanese means paying a courtesy visit to someone of higher social status. Sungkem means showing respect to someone of higher status by putting one's palms together in front of one's chest while nodding one's head solemnly. Sajen means offerings, in this case a sort of bribery.

"The term is not of my own creation. It's been there among judges for a long time, because KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism) in the court world came into existence a very long time ago. I just drew them together, because others simply didn't have the courage to do so," he said.

Corruption in the court, Sahlan said, had reached alarming levels, as it had spread like a chronic disease.

He said that such behavior had become established, not for economic reasons, as judges were paid well, but more for cultural reasons and also due to the corrupt mentality of judges.

One possible way to eradicate this plague was to establish a privately run court.

"Some suggest that to heal the Indonesian court, the entire generation of current judges, including the top leaders, should be replaced by new ones. I see that a privately run court could eventually help in the healing process," Sahlan said.

He envisioned a private court that was run by upright, retired judges. He was inspired by the presence of such a court in the Philippines, which was established for a different reason.

"The problem is, there is a tendency that people are now going to court to win, not to seek justice. This is what I would term a cultural problem," he said almost in desperation.

Although there is always hope that a just and credible judiciary is possible in the future, Sahlan said he was very pessimistic.

So pessimistic was he with the present situation that he once refused promotion as head of a district court in Purwokerto, Central Java, arguing that it would only restrict his movement and freedom of speech.

"I was also afraid that if I was not strong enough to resist I would simply be carried away or unable to do anything at all. I feel safer the way I am. I can observe and speak freely," said Sahlan, the former secretary of the Army-founded Lembaga Kesadaran Berkonstitusi or the Foundation for the Insitute of Constitutional Awareness (1979-1980) and an activist at Petisi 50 group of government critics.

Born in the East Java town of Lamongan on May 25, 1947, Sahlan Said has a good reputation for his consistent criticism of the rottenness of the courts, including their widespread corruption.

He never hesitates to reveal corruption in his working environment. He is also unwavering when identifying judges who have allegedly committed corruption, even if they are his own direct superiors.

He has also been critical of how certain central government officials from the ministry of justice and human rights have helped nurture corruption by asking for "VIP treatment" from regional judges, driving them to seek additional illegal income.

As a judge, similarly, he is also recognized as one of only a few in the country who use their own conscience when delivering verdicts in cases they have handled.

He is a judge who always sides with the people's cry for justice, which explains why many of the sentences he has given have often sparked controversy in the community, not because they were considered unjust but more because they were unusual.

"I have known him for some 10 years and have on several occasions defended a case in a trial at which he presided. Although not all the defendants in his courts were acquitted, I always felt able to accept the sentence he gave with all my heart. I never felt there was anything suspicious in his court," lawyer and former director of Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute Budi Santoso told The Post.

"Personally, I agree with his decision to choose retirement over promotion. He can do much here to continue his struggle for fighting against corruption in the courts that he would not be able to do if he were in Kendari," Budi said.

Sahlan graduated from the school of law at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in 1975. The following year, he joined the ministry of justice as a law and law report researcher.

He started his career as a judge in 1979 at Magelang District Court, Central Java. His assignments took him to Kalabahi District Court, East Nusa Tenggara (1981), Banyumas, Central Java (1985), Bantul, Yogyakarta (1990), back again to Magelang in 1997 and finally to Yogyakarta District Court in 2002.

He also lectures in some law-related subjects at a number of universities in Yogyakarta, including his alma mater, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta Muhammdiyah University (UMY) and the Indonesian Islamic University (UII).