Heru Andriyanto – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must immediately issue a government regulation to ensure that a court to handle corruption cases exists, antigraft campaigners said on Sunday.
Currently, the Anti-Corruption Court operates under a law that will expire at the end of this year and it is expected that its work will be transferred to a new court by that time.
However, the existing court is in danger of being disbanded before the bill for the new court is passed because lawmakers are taking too long.
Major parties in the House of Representatives, or DPR, "are lacking commitment to pursue the corruption court bill on time," including Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, said Indonesia Corruption Watch, or ICW, a nongovernmental group.
The DPR is running out of time in the 25 days between now and March 6 when the current lawmakers take a break and then complete their term on the legislative election day, April 9.
"It is highly unlikely that the House will pass the bill before the election and the House working committee [on the corruption court bill] appears to be buying time because their members are focusing on preparations for the legislative polls," said Febri Diansyah, a researcher with ICW.
The group noted that 36 out of 50 members of the working committee have been officially nominated again by their respective parties for the upcoming election.
Newly-elected lawmakers will not start work until September, meaning that only three months will be available to keep the existing court functioning. "The court is in an emergency situation and the only hope is a regulation from the president," Febri said.
The Anti-Corruption Court may not be a priority for the DPR after at least eight lawmakers were convicted or are currently being tried for corruption cases, he said.
If four major parties made a concerted effort to pass the bill, their combined votes would be enough to enact it into law, according to ICW, after conducting joint research with the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation, or LBH.
The combined strength of the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, the Democratic Party and the Social Justice Party, or PKS, would collect 337 votes, representing an absolute majority of the 550-member House, it said.
"We call on the president to issue the government regulation in lieu of a law before the 2009 presidential election to deliver his promise on corruption eradication," ICW said in a statement.
The court must be defended because the general courts are unreliable in handling corruption cases, it said, adding that over the last four years, the general courts have acquitted more than 600 graft suspects.
The Constitutional Court, the sole interpreter of the constitution, ruled in December 2006 that the Anti-Corruption Court was unconstitutional because its establishment was based merely on an article in the law on the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK.
But it gave the government and the DPR three years to prepare a specific law on the court so that the ruling wouldn't hinder the country's fight against corruption.