'Supreme Court up to Gus Dur'
'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)