The fugitive appellant

Chief Justice Bagir Manan's conclusion that the Supreme Court is legally bound to process Tommy Soeharto's appeal despite the fact that Tommy is a fugitive from justice, is shocking jurisprudence. "Because Tommy submitted a request for the appeal, the Court is bound to process the request." This logic reflects the view that a judge even of the highest court of the land is no more than a mindless paper-pusher, bereft of any responsibility for exercising reason, judgement and discretion.

This is a disastrous approach to law enforcement. As long as police, investigators, prosecutors and judges function in such a non-thinking way, any suspect with a half-smart lawyer will be able to outsmart a legal system whose guardians currently seem on mental autopilot.

Indonesia is laboring to become a nation that honors the rule of law. Honoring the rule of law doesn't mean following legal texts slavishly. It doesn't mean abandoning judgment when drawing legal conclusions, as if enforcing law were like following a technician's blueprint. It means that government authorities, when exercising power, adhere to prevailing legal principles instead of deferring to influential persons.

Competent, non-corrupt justices are not enough; intellectual courage is also needed during the transition to the rule of law. With all due respect: the Chief Justice must remove his Soeharto- era blinders and exhort his colleagues to use their minds while at work.

Aside from the debatable legal principle that would allow a fugitive to benefit from an appeal of legal consequences he has in fact evaded, there is the murder. One doesn't have to be a conspiracy nut to see the hand of Tommy, obviously tiring of life on the run, behind the assassination of Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita. It had the clear earmark of a premeditated warning to those to whom Tommy had already planned to submit his legal fate.

Like all suspects Tommy is entitled to the presumption of innocence regarding that crime. Nevertheless, the murder and the corruption appeal seem so entwined as to render any pre-surrender appeal a betrayal of justice. Particularly if there is a well- founded suspicion that the murder was an attempt to intimidate those who would handle a later appeal, Tommy's appeal request should be denied until his unconditional surrender to prison authorities is effectuated. The Soeharto family cannot be allowed to corrupt Indonesia's law enforcement any longer.

DONNA K.WOODWARD

Medan, North Sumatra