Jakarta – The main challenge facing the Indonesian government is the reform of the legal system, a senior minister said Thursday.

"Our major challenge is to overhaul the court process," State Minister for Investment and State Enterprises Development Laksamana Sukardi told a luncheon organised by the French-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce.

Lasamana accused judges here of being "auctioneers not judges, selling to the highest bidder. "[But] we cannot fire all the judges at the same time," he said.

He was commenting after a Jakarta court acquitted the director of a politically linked company implicated in the 80-million-dollar Bank Bali fraud case on a technicality.

Djoko Tjandra, executive of PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), had been charged with corruption in "arranging and engaging in illegal transactions." But he walked free from South Jakarta district court on Monday after judges ruled his case should have been heard in a civil rather than criminal court, reports said.

The decision was lamented by the attorney general's office, and Lasamana said: "This is a decision of the court. We cannot interfere but we appeal. Legal reform is our top priority. We would like to see an independent judiciary system," he said, but added "the rule of law will not happen overnight."

International financial aid to Indonesia was suspended in August amid the authorities' footdragging on measures against those involved in the Bank Bali scandal which an audit report has said benefitted figures close to former president B.J. Habibie.

The aid, part of a 46-billion-dollar bailout plan agreed with the International Monetary Fund, only resumed at the beginning of the year after the new government of President Abdurrahman Wahid agreed to complete the legal processes.

Lasamana urged his audience, including European businessmen, to take into account the momentous changes happening in Indonesia. "Now Indonesia is different. It is a different Indonesia," he said, seeking to dispel lingering concerns after three decades of nepotistic and corrupt rule under former strongman Suharto who stepped down in May 1998.

Foreign and Indonesian investors were now treated on an equal footing, and measures were underway to wipe out corruption and draw up new laws to facilitate investments, he said.