Nivell Rayda, Abe Silangit & Camelia Pasandaran – A corruption watchdog on Friday urged the chairwoman of a House of Representatives committee deliberating the Anti-Corruption Court bill to step down in the wake of an apparent hesitance to pass the bill on time.

Febry Diansyah, a legal and judicial coordinator for Indonesia Corruption Watch, said that Dewi Asmara Oetojo should step down from her position as chairwoman of the special committee because of her lack of commitment in fighting corruption.

ICW was responding to a remark made by her earlier this week to reporters, in which she said that all corruption cases should be heard by regular district courts and not by a special corruption court.

The current Anti-Corruption Court, which was established under a 2003 law related to the Corruption Eradication Commission, has a 100 percent conviction rate, putting to jail many high-profile officials including a total of eight current and former lawmakers.

In sharp contrast, the ICW recorded that 49 percent of graft suspects who came before the state courts were acquitted, and those who were found guilty only received light sentences, with imprisonment terms under two years.

According to research conducted by Transparency International Indonesia, the state court system is perceived as one of the most corrupt institutions in Indonesia, with the House of Representatives perceived as the most corrupt.

In 2006, the Constitutional Court ordered the House to draw up a separate law that would provide a legal basis to the Anti-Corruption Court before Dec. 19, 2009. Otherwise, the special court could be disbanded.

However, Febry said the House only had until next month to pass the new law, when the current legislators' terms are due to end.

"If [Dewi] can't pass the law, she should step down now, so the government can issue a perpu," he said referring to the government regulation in lieu of law. "As head of a special committee she has failed and there is no excuse for her to issue such remarks."

Dewi denied that the House had done a poor job in deliberating the bill, saying that the main reason for the slow process was the fact that there were never enough committee members in attendance to form a quorum. The Golkar Party lawmaker also maintained her remarks were not out of order.

"There is nothing wrong with what I stated," Dewi said. "There is no reason to blame the regular courts for acquitting graft suspects. We just need to intensify supervision of the judges. If there are bad judges inside the court, then we should not blame the court itself."

Dewi said there was no urgent need for the government to issue a perpu.

Separately, Lili Romli, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), also criticized the House for its lack of serious commitment to eradicate corruption.

"House members should finish the deliberation on time, and if possible, before their terms end," he said during a discussion conducted by the Constitutional Court. "Delaying passing the bill only demonstrates that they don't care about eradicating corruption." ICW researcher Illian Deta Artasari said the plan to temporarily return corruption cases to state courts was against the spirit of combating graft.

Mahfud MD, the Constitutional Court chief, said recently that limited time should not be the reason for the House to delay passing the bill.

"If lawmakers work seriously, they can pass the law within a few days," he said. "It is simple actually. The problem is that the house members never attend in enough numbers to reach an agreement."

Mahfud also said that if the House members could not finish it on time, the government could issue a perpu.

"The president could issue a perpu on the antigraft court bill before the current presidential term is over in October," he said. "With a perpu, the bill could be passed directly in the next House term."