The law as helmsman

Under the New Order the law has still not been able to place itself in a helmsman's position in this country. This is one of the interesting premises made by Yusril Ihza Mahendra in a speech during his confirmation as professor of law in the University of Indonesia's School of Law last week. "The law as the helmsman" is an expression designed to enunciate a major difference with the past Old Order regime, which used "politics as the helmsman" as its motto.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra's observation gives all of us cause for apprehension. Many cases involving the enforcement of the law makes it indeed impossible for us to claim that we have abandoned the maxim of politics as the helmsman. The much-publicized abduction and disappearance of political and student activists -- even though we are still in the dark as to who the perpetrators are -- serve as disturbing examples all of us to see. Also, the imprisonment without due legal process, a few years ago, of a number of vocal critics still lingers fresh in our minds. The arbitrary meting out of death sentences against criminals by what was popularly known at the time as "mysterious gunmen" is another blemish on our country's legal practices.

Tragically, all those legal deviations are supposed to be New Order corrections of Old Order practices. As we may remember, a number of political dissenters -- such as Sjahrir, Prawoto and others -- whose views differed from those of the Sukarno regime were at the time imprisoned without trial. Journalists Mochtar Lubis of the newspaper Indonesia Raya and Tasrif of the newspaper Abadi suffered the same fate.

All of them were freed after the fall of the Old Order. Their release was motivated by the New Order's trauma with the legal deviations committed by the previous regime. People were traumatized by all the deviations from the Constitution, especially those that affected the position of citizens with regard to the law.

All our judicial authorities and all our government officials need, in this context, to bring about the necessary corrections in order to establish a climate of equanimity in our society and to uphold the law on a basis of honesty, truth and justice.

-- Republika, Jakarta