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.