Ezra Syarief & Ulma Haryanto – Every defendant will be accompanied by a lawyer throughout the legal process, the House of Representatives promised with the passage of a legal aid law on Tuesday.

"Of the new law's goals, the first is to assure and fulfill the rights for legal aid recipients to gain access to justice," said deputy chairman of the house legislation body Sunardi Ayub.

The law defines "legal aid recipients" as underprivileged people in a legal dispute in a civil, criminal or administrative court as well as those involved in non-litigation matters outside court.

Sunardi said the legislation aimed to fulfill the constitutional right of every citizen of equality before the law. "Third, it warrants fair distribution to legal aid providers in all regions, and fourth, to have an effective, efficient, and accountable judiciary," Sunardi said.

The law defines "legal aid provider" as an agency or community organization that provides legal aid services that meet certain requirements. Under the legal aid bill, these groups will be eligible for new state funding. Legal aid should be supported by the government, Sunardi said.

"In this regard, [legal aid institutions] should be the concern of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights," Sunardi said. "The funding of such legal assistance shall be funded from state coffers."

However, the law does not require that legal aid institutions limit their funding to that received by the state. "Aside from the state budget, funding for legal aid institutions can also come from grants, donations and other legitimate sources," Sunardi said.

Details of the operations of the new funding plan will be spelled out in an upcoming ministerial decree, Sunardi said. Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said the government was seeking public input on the funding structure in a bid to maximise transparency.

However, Nurkholis Hidayat, director of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), was disappointed the bill did not introduce wider changes. "The law overlooked the larger purpose of legal aid institutions, which is to work for the interests of justice. It does not only mean the poor," he said.

LBH Jakarta, he said, worked not only for the poor but also for those who are marginalized. "This means women, children, people criminalized by the system, minority groups, transsexuals," he said. "They all need legal aid."

Nurkholis feared that the new law would lead to legal aid institutions working on cases involving the poor when there is still "a lot of work to do within our justice system."