Jakarta – The public at large are disappointed with the sluggish process of reform, including in the legal sector, and have begun to hope for the return to the old system under former authoritarian president Soeharto who, with his iron fist, managed to make the people abide by the law, legal observers said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Tracing Democracy and Law Enforcement Road in Indonesia seminar, constitutional expert Satya Arinanto said that people at the grass roots were currently suffering from SARS or Sindrom Aku Rindu Soeharto (I-miss-Soeharto Syndrome).
"This SARS arises because the people are disappointed with the slow reform process, including in the legal sector," Satya told the seminar, which was jointly organized by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
According to Satya, current legal reforms were focusing too much on legal structures and substances such as commissions and legislation without building the legal culture, which was also an important aspect.
He said the absence of legal culture development, worsened by weak law enforcement, had resulted in frequent legal violations.
The slow and weak reform process, he said, was used by elements of the New Order – the so-called regime of Soeharto – to boost their interests.
A survey sponsored by the Asia Foundation revealed on Monday that the majority of eligible voters for the next year's general elections wanted a strong leader like Soeharto.
Last week, Concern for the Nation Functional Party (PKPB) nominated Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana as its candidate in 2004, when the country holds for the first time in its history a direct presidential election.
PKPB chairman Gen. (ret) Raden Hartono, former Army chief under Soeharto, proudly claimed that the party carried programs of the old Golkar Party, the political tool of Soeharto for more than three decades.
Meanwhile, human rights lawyer Bambang Widjojanto supported Satya's opinion that elements of the New Order were taking advantage of the slow process of reform.
"Besides SARS, I also heard that the current Golkar Party would campaign for security, welfare and enough food as they did in the past," said Bambang of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro).
Both Bambang and Satya claimed that the current process of reform had to be pursued, urging the people to be patient as it would take time.
They suggested that the experiences of Thailand and Germany in the reform of their law and legislation were worthy enough to be learned.
Meanwhile, Kittisak Prokati from Thammasat University of Thailand agreed that the reform process would take time, but was worthy of being reached. "I agree that the process is a bitter pill we have to swallow. But it's worthy to do it, like us in Thailand," Prokati said in the seminar.
Like Indonesia, he said, Thailand reformed its legal sector, including establishing an anticorruption commission and an audit commission on state officials' wealth. He revealed that since the beginning of the economic crisis in 1997, two ministers had been dismissed for alleged corruption.
Professor Goerisch of Muenster University of Germany suggested that laws should be based on democratic principles, including serving the interests of the majority of the people. "Law and democracy could not be separated. Without democracy, the law is only a regulation that serves certain interests," Goerisch said in the seminar.