Joanne Collins, Jakarta – A UN investigator examining Indonesia's legal system called on the government to take urgent and drastic action to tackle corruption in the country's judiciary, or see badly needed investment dwindle.
"Public confidence in the government and its administration of justice is seriously undermined; there is a risk that the public will ... take justice into their own hands unless something is urgently done," UN special rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy said in a report issued this week.
The report on the independence of judges and lawyers in Indonesia also said future prosecutions over the 1999 East Timor bloodshed needed to reflect international standards and the government should be encouraged to develop a plan to ensure that happened.
"The several acquittals before the Ad Hoc Human Rights Court for East Timor is not surprising," the report said, referring to a string of trials over violence surrounding East Timor's vote to break from former ruler Indonesia. Of 15 suspects who have received verdicts thus far, only one military officer and two civilians have been convicted in the Jakarta-based court.
The report follows a 10-day fact-finding mission by Cumaraswamy to Indonesia last July when he said the country's legal system was among the worst he had seen and that President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government lacked the political will to root out graft. Those comments angered Indonesia's justice minister who said at the time that Cumaraswamy had exceeded his authority during the mission.
A spokesman for Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra declined immediate comment on the report on Friday. Cumaraswamy, a former commercial lawyer from Malaysia, said in the report it was "quite amazing that during his mission and after, no one was able to inform him as to how many lawyers there are in Indonesia." He also said authorities declined to grant him access to Aceh, Papua and the Moluccas to see how their justice systems worked.
Aceh and Papua are centres of separatist activity and the Moluccas have been hit by sectarian violence. The government told Cumaraswamy his security could not be guaranteed in the areas.
Key in a series of recommendations by Cumaraswamy were calls for Indonesia's constitution to be amended to provide for an independent judiciary and impartial prosecutory service, for the Chief Justice to call on corrupt judges to resign and that the government increase its budget allocation to finance legal reforms.
Legal uncertainty and problems with the court and justice system have been cited by many analysts as key reasons many foreign investors have been reluctant to put money into the world's fourth most populous country, still trying to get back on its feet after the Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s. "If corruption is not arrested and excised, the negative impact on the flow of investments will continue," Cumaraswamy's report said.
Broad foreign investment pledges slumped 35 percent to $9.74 billion last year compared with the previous year. But Indonesia has won praise over its legal reform efforts from some analysts who say court cases against several high profile and powerful Indonesians reflected the government's resolve to improve the system. And Cumaraswamy said he appreciated "the willingness and openness of the government" and others "to discuss issues and problems affecting their respective institutions and agencies."