Irawaty Wardhany, Jakarta – The son of a woman who was sentenced 45 days imprisonment after being found guilty of stealing three cacao fruits worth only Rp 1,500 (15 US cents) has questioned the fairness of the coutry's legal framework.
"What's wrong with this country's judicial system? Big-time criminals are protected while we villagers are treated mercilessly in the name of law enforcement?" said Firdaus, son of Minah, from Purwokerto, Central Java.
Beside Minah, Aguswandi Tanjung, a tenant at the ITC Roxy Mas Apartments in West Jakarta, was in September arrested for charging his mobile phone at a power point in the corridor of his apartment building.
Simultaneously, the public has poured sympathy on housewife Prita Mulyasari in her ongoing dispute with Omni International Hospital, which took her to court after she emailed friends, telling them of the poor service the hospital had provided.
Minah and the others are not the same criminal caliber as Sjamsul Nursalim or Anggoro Widjojo, both suspects in separate corruption cases who, despite causing billions or even trillions of rupiah in losses to the state, may yet evade justice.
They do not have a brother like Anggodo Widjojo, who apparently has the power to order officers from the police and the Attorney General's Office to fabricate a criminal case against KPK leaders to scuttle a corruption case against his brother.
This case appalled the nation and once again opened the public's eyes to just how insidious corruption is in Indonesia.
This was not the first such case, but it was the first case to draw such wide public attention, overshadowing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's national summit and 100-day program.
Chairman of the Indonesian Legal Studies Foundation Frans H Winarta, criticized the President's call for an out of court settlement in the Bibit and Chandra case as contradictory to the constitution, which is meant to guarantee the rule of law and prohibit legislative and executive bodies from interfering in the judicial system.
"It is not merely the system to blame, the direction of the law depends on its enforcers," said Rudi Satrio, law expert from the University of Indonesia
Dealing with justice, he said, was not only a matter of whether a case had fulfilled formal requirements but also depended the substance of law violations.
Law enforcers had to consider how substantial the law violations are before processing them in according with procedure. "The Anggodo case cannot be compared with the Minah case from their substance, law enforcers should give priority to fighting substantial justice, instead of the procedural one."