The decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the conviction of 54-year Rasmiah for petty theft prompted a chorus of condemnation on the state of our judicial system.

Her crime, according to news reports, was stealing plates, bowls, oxtail soup ingredients and clothes belonging to her employer.

The line of argument taken by editorials published in some national newspapers and broadcast on television is that a poor woman was imprisoned for months before her trial because of her economic circumstances.

Meanwhile, the nation has been privy to the drama of high-profile cases of corruption, in which the alleged perpetrators continue to live in luxury and will most likely get off lightly thanks to the cunning of their top-notch and highly paid lawyers.

The credibility of our legal system is very much at stake, and the way those responsible for administering and enforcing the law do their work, particularly for corruption cases, does not give us confidence about the state of justice in the country. Keep this up and pretty soon the entire nation will lose faith in the ability of the courts to dispense justice.

But the Rasmiah case sheds light on another way the law is being administered, which borders on the ridiculous.

The maid was originally found not guilty by the Tangerang District Court in Banten province. Instead of letting things go, prosecutors appealed, and sure enough, the Supreme Court overturned the original verdict and found her guilty, sentencing her to time previously served in pre-verdict detention.

The case has now become a cause celebre highlighting the injustices of the legal system. Her lawyers have announced that they will file a judicial review in the hopes of getting the Supreme Court to reverse its decision.

It is not so much the injustices that the Rasmiah case has revealed that bothers the conscience. After all, a crime is a crime, and if the book says she has to go to jail then she should serve her time like everybody else.

More disturbing is the length and trouble to which our law enforcement agencies and the entire court system has gone to in seeking justice for such a simple case, all at considerable cost to taxpayers.

Politicians and lawyers can be excused for making a trifle of the law, but it's a completely different story when those responsible for enforcing and administering the law make a mockery of the system.

Shouldn't there be restrictions on which cases can go to the Supreme Court. Are we to believe that every single case should go all the way to the already over-burdened Supreme Court?

If police, prosecutors and judges don't believe in the system, how can they expect the public to believe in it and then to respect the law?

God save this nation.