Jakarta – Regardless of who gets elected on Wednesday, the winner has to realize that there is much that needs to be done to ensure that the rule of law is upheld in Indonesia.
The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Akil Mochtar, former chief justice of the Constitutional Court, to life in prison recently. He was found guilty of having sold off Indonesia's powerful local government seats to corrupt politicians.
In one sense, the sentencing proved that justice can prevail in Indonesia. But in another sense, one cannot help but wonder how the chief justice of the nation's highest court could end up on trial for corruption. How did we get there? How could the nation's embodiment of justice be found guilty of breaking the law?
As it is, upholding the rule of law remains a serious challenge in Indonesia. The Rule of Law Index Report released this year by the World Justice Project indicates that corruption is still rife among the nation's judiciary and law enforcers. The report also shows that civil justice is not effectively enforced in the archipelago.
Hikmahanto Juwana, a law professor from the University of Indonesia, told the Jakarta Globe that although inadequate law enforcement has long been a serious problem, reform has proved elusive.
In this respect, it is especially important that the next elected president is one who is committed to not only improve the nation's legal system but also clean it from corruption. "Back in [former president] Suharto's time, the law was just an ornament," Hikmahanto said.
The 32 years of Suharto's authoritarian rule have left a deep mark on the nation's legal system.
Hikmahanto pointed out that little had changed even after Suharto's New Order era came to an end with the brief presidency of B. J. Habibie in 1998-99. "Since Habibie's term, each president had always wanted to improve law enforcement here. But always to little avail. Nothing changed."
The WJP's effective enforcement index measures the effectiveness and timeliness of the enforcement of civil justice decisions and judgments in practice.
Indonesia received a score of 0.29 on the effective enforcement index, below nations such as Serbia, which scored 0.31. By contrast, Singapore, one of Indonesia's nearest neighbors, scored 0.85.
Corruption in the legal system
On top of problematic law enforcement, corruption is also prevalent in the nation's legal system, according to the report.
The WJP reported that Indonesia ranked 80 out of 99 countries in terms of freedom from corruption in the country's legal system. "Problems related with bribery are everywhere, whether it be with judges, prosecutors, or lawyers. This is a real problem," Hikmahanto said.
On the judiciary corruption index, Indonesia scored 0.34, lower than Ethiopia, which scored 0.35. Singapore scored 0.84.
The WJP's judiciary corruption index measures whether judges and judicial officials refrain from soliciting and accepting bribes. It also measures whether the judiciary and judicial rulings are free of improper influence from government, private interests and criminal organizations.
Subsequently, with respect to the level of corruption in the police or the military, Indonesia scored 0.37, alongside Afghanistan, which received the same rating.
The WJP's police/military corruption index measures whether police officers and criminal investigators refrain from soliciting and accepting bribes to perform basic police services such as investigating crimes. It also measures whether government officials in the police and the military are free from improper influence by private interests or criminal organizations.
Serious consequences
Serious social and economic consequences await Indonesia should it fail to improve the rule of law. Without the rule of law, public order is difficult to maintain. Consequently, without order, a nation can hardly progress at all. Additionally, the extent to which rule of law is upheld in a country is often a yardstick that businessmen and investors use when considering where to operate.
"It causes dismay to investors, people who want to do business," Hikmahanto said. "Were it not for that, Indonesia, I believe, would have been five times as developed."
Besides economic impacts, the failure of the rule of law is felt in enforcement of Indonesia's environmental and human rights legal framework.
The World Justice Project is an independent, non-profit organization based in the United States. Among its honorary chairs are a former US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, former US president Jimmy Carter, and South African activist Desmond Tutu.
The WJP claimed that the Rule of Law Index Report 2014 captured the experiences and perceptions of ordinary citizens as well as in-country professionals. The WJP claims to have identified, on average, more than 300 potential local experts per country. The report's data was compiled by the WJP with the assistance of an Indonesian polling company, MRI-Marketing Research Indonesia. The poll was conducted by meas of face-to-face interviews, with as many as 1,067 samples collected in 2013.
[This article is part of a special coverage on Indonesia's presidential election.]
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/long-way-go-rid-indonesia-corruption/