Jakarta – Legal experts agree that Indonesia needs to overhaul its legal system, including restructuring judicial institutions and reapportioning work between courts.
The experts agreed that the legal current system has created bottlenecks at higher levels, such as the Supreme Court.
Former Constitutional Court chief Jimly Asshiddiqie said that the country needed an honest and integrated legal system that clearly defines the connections between judicial standards, structures and functions.
"We have to have an integrated concept on the norms of the administrative, ethical and legal systems to make them an integrated whole," he said. "If administration runs smoothly and ethics are practiced, violations of the law won't happen," he said.
The legal system, from initial investigations to correctional facilities, must be viewed as parts of a unified system and not as separate parts due to regulations, he said, adding that legal reforms implied amending the Constitution.
"The Supreme Court will always be overloaded with cases if there is no limit on the amount of its cases. Don't expect the management of cases to be professional and competent as long as this continues," Jimly said.
The number of cases could be limited by granting judges the authority to dismiss cases that do not meet requirements and by creating five separate courts for every type of case, he added.
There should be five courts, each specializing in a specific area such as religious, criminal, civil or state administration law. Without such an arrangement, similar cases could be judged differently, Jimly said.
A case where a person steals his neighbor's chicken could result in a more severe sentence when handled by judge with a religious law background when compared to a judge with a different background, he said.
"This can be done by creating a specially integrated law that manages the administration of judiciary powers and courts," Jimly added.
Lawyer and human rights activist Bambang Widjojanto said that the judicial authority of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Judicial Commission must be integrated by developing a joint blueprint regulating the work of each institution.
He added that the differing recruitment and monitoring systems of the three institutions must be reviewed to eliminate any sense of rivalry.
"The general monitoring of judges as outlined in the law on the authority of judges remains discriminative because Constitutional Court judges are not required to be monitored due to their status as self-monitoring state officials," he said.
Judicial Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas said that judicial institutions would be empowered if the commission were transformed into a Judicial Court.
"A Judicial Court would be part of an integrated criminal justice system," he said, adding that it would effectively combat corrupt law enforcement officials who had systematically entrenched themselves in the legal system.
Integrated criminal behavior requires an integrated legal system, Busyro said.
"A solution for police officers and prosecutors who act as a judicial mafia is amending the 1945 Constitution," he said.
Indonesia has been rocked by a series of high-profile graft and tax evasion cases, such as those related to former low level tax official Gayus Tambunan, which have implicated high-ranking police officers, police detectives, prosecutors, attorneys and one judge. (gzl)