Jakarta – The Supreme Court lost all credibility years ago and has long been corrupt and its judges unprofessional, a new book on the history of the institution says.

The Indonesian Supreme Court: A Study of Institutional Collapse blames the Sukarno and Soeharto regimes for undermining the power of the Supreme Court and using it as a political tool.

Written by former resident legal advisor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sebastian Pompe, the book argues during the 1950s, Indonesia's legal system was in a golden age when the Supreme Court and the country's other legal institutions operated properly and were trusted by the public.

"The Old and New Order governments laid the groundwork to ignore what courts do, and perhaps ignore them all together," he said during the book's Jakarta launch, which was attended by court Chief Justice Bagir Manan and judge Marianna Sutadi, along with Corruption Eradication Commission deputy head Amien Sunaryadi.

The two regimes often refused to comply with court orders, consistently reduced the budget and salaries of judges, undermined the Supreme Court's independence and limited the power of the courts.

Pompe, a former senior lecturer at Leiden University Law School, said that the Supreme Court was not corrupt until around 1974.

"During the New Order, the judiciary over time changed from a victim into a collaborator as its household was progressively subverted by the politics it dealt with, and then a major crisis in confidence of the courts emerged," he said.

Pompe suggested the Supreme Court take harsher measures to implement its internal reform agenda.

"I know that the commitment (to reform) is there but that is not enough. This is a matter where justice must be seen to be done, and clear and very public measures are in order to begin to restore public confidence," he said.