The judiciary mafia

The judiciary mafia

The judiciary "mafia" (gang) in Indonesia is like the wind:
trees tumble, but it is impossible to catch the wind. And the one
party who keeps denying that the wind exists is the government.

Monday, though, the denials came to an end. President
Abdurrahman Wahid, whether on the basis of facts or assumptions,
acknowledged that 90 percent of cases in Indonesian courts are
won by those who have the money to pay. Minister of Justice
Baharuddin Lopa confirmed Abdurrahman's statement.

This is a very rare case of honesty. The government, which had
all along protected the wind on the pretext of the principle of
the presumption of innocence, finally admitted that the wind
exists. Even that the wind, which for so long had seemed to be
moved by an invisible hand, turned out to be the government's own
possession.

The face of our judiciary and of justice in this country have
for so long been tarnished because no one was willing to admit
that corruption and collusion actually occurred in our courts.
Judges and prosecutors vied with each other to convince the
public that they were working honestly.

Eliminating the judiciary mafias is one of the vital jobs
President Abdurrahman Wahid must accomplish. The country's
current deep and multidimensional crisis is rooted in the
unwillingness and inability of our leaders to stamp out
corruption.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta