Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The House of Representatives' commission on law says it will make revising the 2004 law on the Judicial Commission a top priority, after a court ruling stripped the Judicial Commission of its oversight powers.

"The House will strengthen the judicial body by revising the law, since the reason used to strip the supervisory power was the law's vagueness," Almuzzammil Yusuf, a member of the commission on law, was quoted as saying Saturday by Antara.

He said the Constitutional Court examined only the literal aspects of the case, while it should have considered the main purpose of establishing the Judicial Commission: to clean up corruption in the courts.

Many observers have condemned the Constitutional Court's ruling, and the cell phones of commission members have been flooded with sympathetic messages.

"The 'court mafia' has gotten to the Constitutional Court. Go ahead and don't give up your mission," commission member Soekotjo Soeparto said Friday, quoting one of many messages he received after the verdict was issued.

Hendardi of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association told The Jakarta Post allegations that the "court mafia" had penetrated the Constitutional Court were credible, since it is generally believed that this could happen to any legal institution. "The allegation is strengthened by the fact that the decision definitely hinders the nation's anticorruption drive," he said.

He said the effort to reform the judiciary was the most fundamental part of the effort to combat Indonesia's rampant corruption. "Many judges here are crooked," he said.

While Soekotjo acknowledged that the ruling was final and binding, he said the commission members would issue a formal statement about it. "We'll study the verdict and discuss it next Monday," he said.

The Judicial Commission has decided to stop accepting reports against judges from the public, although the verdict does not constrain it from receiving reports.

"We're doing this because we don't want to disappoint the public," he said, adding that it was also to avoid giving the perception that the commission did not respect the court's decision. The commission has, however, decided to process 587 reports it received from the public prior to the ruling.

Soekotjo said he hoped the planned revision of the judicial commission law would happen soon so as not to leave the country's judges unsupervised for too long. "The government and the legislature are the ones that must be proactive in expediting the planned revision. We can only wait," he said.

Meanwhile, Constitutional Court chief Jimly Asshidiqie refused to elaborate on the ruling. "If I talk, I'll say those who do not understand the verdict are idiots," he said.

The court concluded that articles in the 2004 law that gave oversight functions to the commission only opened the door to legal uncertainty. It said the law did not give details about the oversight procedure, such as what its subjects would be and what mechanisms it would employ.