VP cannot interfere with Supreme Court

YOGYAKARTA (JP): An constitutional law expert has stated that despite increasing public demands, neither the President nor the Vice President has the authority to investigate alleged corruption in the Supreme Court.

P.J. Suwarno, a staff lecturer at Sanata Dharma University, said that according to the 1945 Constitution and a People's Consultative Assembly decree, "neither the President nor the Vice President can interfere with the Supreme Court."

The demand emerged after Deputy Chief Justice Adi Andojo Soetjipto revealed that collusion and corruption allegedly took place in a document fraud case. Some observers have suggested that Adi ask the office of Vice President Try Sutrisno to launch an investigation.

"If those demands are met, than it means that there's an accumulation of power in the hands of the President... This could lead to authoritarian government," Suwarno told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

He believes that the People's Consultative Assembly, Indonesia's supreme sovereign body that meets every five years to produce the Broad Guidelines of State Policies and to elect the President, should set up a committee to investigate the affair.

The Constitution rules that the Supreme Court is an independent power with authority to adjudicate violations of laws committed by individual citizens or the executive. The Assembly's decree No IV/1978 stipulates that, in carrying out its duties, the Supreme Court is independent of the government's power and other influences.

Suwarno pointed out that under the existing system of government, the President, the Supreme Advisory Council, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Audit Body and the Supreme Court, all have equal rank.

"None of the five can dissolve or question the procedures of the others," Suwarno said.

Only the People's Consultative Assembly has supremacy over, and the authority to hold the five offices to account, he said.

The People's Consultative Assembly comprises the 500 members of the House of Representatives and 500 other appointees.

Suwarno regretted the fact that most Indonesians hear of the Assembly only after the general elections and just before the presidential election.

"After undertaking the above activities, nothing is heard of it anymore, despite the fact that the Assembly bears the people's sovereignty," he said.

Suwarno said that the Assembly should be more active during its five year tenure. "The public should be able to come to the body anytime to protest about injustices and violations committed by the government." (har/swe)