Students lose suit and hope

Students lose suit and hope

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta State Administrative Court yesterday
ordered five university students to pay court fees totaling Rp
34,000 after their complaint of discrimination against the
Attorney General's Office was dismissed.

In January, the five law students from Muhammadiyah University
in Surakarta had filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General's
Office, indicting the institution for being discriminatory in its
recruitment policy.

The policy dictated that only state university graduates were
invited to apply to the General Attorney's office for prosecutor
positions.

A team of judges led by Tengku Abdurrahman Husny said in their
verdict read on Monday that the five students, representing the
student body, were not fully qualified to question the policy
because they are not university graduates who might have been
disadvantaged by the so called discriminative recruitment policy.

Last year there was a controversy over qualifications for
judges and prosecutors. Reports said only those of a certain
height would be considered. (14)