Supreme Court reform program please donors

Supreme Court reform program please donors

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Court has won praise from its foreign donors for its
commitment to implement real reforms as shown by its initiative
to halt corruption in the country's judiciary.

Zacky Husein, the legal program director from the Asia
Foundation, said that the Supreme Court was an institution had
built a degree of trust with its international donors, who are
funding the reforms.

"Donors think that the Supreme Court has shown signs of a
willingness (to reform itself). The Supreme Court has been
transparent and has a clear working program," he told The Jakarta
Post on Thursday.

According to Zacky, the Supreme Court's reform program has
been on the right track due to the support from both the court's
leadership and its employees.

"The donors have praised the Supreme Court for being able to
admit that something wrong has been going on and for its
commitment to fix it. Some people may say that the reforms have
been too slow, but I think that's part of the plan," he said.

Husein was responding to the latest admission by a top Supreme
Court official that bribery involving judges remained rampant in
the institution.

Sebastiaan Pompe, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Resident Legal Advisor, agreed with Zacky, saying donors such as
the IMF, Dutch Technical Assistance and the Asia Foundation very
much supported the reforms initiated by Chief Justice Bagir Manan
and his staff.

"This is the first court leadership that says, 'Yes, we have
problems, now let's go and fix them.' It takes courage and
insight to say this. Not to support the reform blueprints, I
would qualify as irresponsible," he remarked, referring to so-
called blueprint that has been prepared for the court reform
program.

Pompe considers the Supreme Court's reform plans, which are
the first in the country's history, to be "fundamental and
innovative".

"This massive undertaking needs and deserves full support of
the government and donors because, in the end, the role and place
of the courts is to ensure the rule of law, the protection of the
rights of the individual," he said.

Husein added that the reforms at the Supreme Court also needed
the full support of the House of Representatives.

The Supreme Court is currently facing an uphill battle in its
bid to restore its ailing image. At the same time, the court has
a greater work load following the transfer of administrative and
human resources development tasks from the Ministry of Justice
and Human Rights.

Chief Justice Bagir Manan, who is a professor of law, launched
the Supreme Court's reform blueprint in October last year.

It includes, among other things, the court's management, the
management of human resources in the lower courts, education of
judges in the lower courts, financial management and
accountability of the court system and the establishment of the
Judicial Commission.

The blueprint was prepared a local non-governmental
organization, which got its financing from the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).

Other law enforcement institutions, the National Police and
the Attorney General's Office, are also struggling with reform.

Bagir has admitted, however, that a clean and credible
judicial system in the country remained out of reach for at least
another decade.

He predicted that the country would need between 10 and 15
years to build a credible judiciary, providing it had the full
support of all related parties. The Supreme Court alone, he said,
could not bring about reform in the country's corruption-ridden
judiciary.