'Supreme Court up to Gus Dur'

JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri has unexpectedly turned down President Abdurrahman Wahid's mandate to choose alternative candidates for the Supreme Court Chief and returned the responsibility to the President.

"Ibu Mega leaves the matter entirely in the hands of Gus Dur (Abdurrahman's nickname) as president," legislator Sophan Sophiaan said from Bern, Switzerland, where he is accompanying Megawati on a visit.

Sophiaan, who leads Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), was quoted by Antara as saying that Megawati refused to have the final say in the matter.

Abdurrahman, after rejecting both former justice minister Muladi and legal expert Bagir Manan, said late last month that "it all depends" on Megawati to pick and choose other candidates for the Supreme Court's top post.

The President suggested at the time that the two had to be rejected as he did not have the green light from Megawati.

The President said Muladi and Bagir Manan, both of whom have been nominated by the House of Representatives (DPR) as candidates for chief justice, were known to be loyal to the New Order regime and to be partisan.

Muladi served as justice minister in the last cabinet of former president Soeharto, then stayed in the post under Soeharto's successor, B.J. Habibie.

Bagir Manan, a law professor at the state Padjadjaran University in Bandung, West Java, also served Soeharto as a director general of the justice ministry in the 1990s.

Megawati would abide by whatever decision Abdurrahman makes, Sophiaan said, even if his choice was not supported by PDI Perjuangan.

"Gus Dur should know that Ibu Mega has rejected the candidates of the DPR, so there is really no need to refer the matter to the vice president," Sophiaan said.

House Speaker Akbar Tandjung said on Thursday that he hoped the President would have a decision on the matter by the time the House resumed its session on Jan. 15.

Meanwhile, a senior Supreme Court official said on Thursday that the absence of the chief justice had no impact on the overall processing of cases appealed to the Court.

"Since former Supreme Court Justice Sarwata retired last November, overall matters have been handled by then Supreme Court deputy chief T.H. Ketut Suraputra," newly appointed Supreme Court deputy chief Taufiq told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said even Ketut's retirement last month had caused no problems with the Supreme Court's activities.

Since Ketut retired, he said, the Supreme Court leadership had been temporally transferred to justice M. Syaifuddin Kartasasmita, who is now presiding over the panel of justices on a graft case involving former president Soeharto.

"So, there is no problem. The procedures have been so established. There is no impact on the process of the Supreme Court's decision-making," he said.

He said the Supreme Court would of course need a chief when it made long-term programs or policy.

Taufiq said the Supreme Court was not the same as the Attorney General's Office, which applies a top-down command system.

He said the main duty of the Supreme Court chief was to arrange panels of justices who would settle the appealed cases, but the chief would not be involved in the cases heard by the panels.

"The decision-making remains the same even when there is no Supreme Court chief, because the system has been established," he said.

Taufiq said the Supreme Court chief has always been the newsmaker due to his position as the Supreme Court's top leader, but most people have no knowledge of Supreme Court processes.

"People think that a Supreme Court chief controls everything. People may think that the Supreme Court chief can name the appealed cases as red or green. It's not so. They depend on each panel of justices," he said.

However, he said, the presence of the Supreme Court chief was certainly important.

"An organization needs a manager. There must be a leader in an organization," he said. (byg/01)