Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is facing mounting pressure, including from Indonesians abroad, to combat rampant mafia practices in the country's legal institutions.
A group of Indonesians living in London urged the President on Monday to find the courage to put an end to rampant law mafia practices and find a clear solution to the graft scandal between the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
The request was announced by Amika Wardana, a University of Essex student from the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) in London.
The request was made in a joint statement signed by representatives from the ICMI in the UK, the UK branch of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, and also from the Association of Indonesian students in the UK, reported state news agency Antara.
The request was prepared in response to the fierce dispute over alleged efforts to incriminate two suspended KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.
"The President has to seriously listen to complaints and demands from the public, who are getting increasingly fed up with the dispute," said Winarno, a legal observer from the University of Jambi.
"The fact-finding team should have been given more authority to enable them to disclose the truth and impose stern actions," Winarno told Antara in Jambi.
Amien Rais, the 1998 reform figure, who helped topple Soeharto, said the conflict between the "Cicak and Buaya" (Gecko versus Crocodile) or between the KPK and the police and Attorney General's Office had created the momentum necessary to reform the legal sector.
"The dispute should be used by all involved parties to increase awareness and put pressure on those bodies to ensure the law is upheld.
"If this issue is not given necessary attention, it will have serious repercussions for proper legal practises being upheld in the future," Amien said in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Monday.
"The total reform of legal mafia practices should be conducted as soon as possible by thoroughly processing the dispute and punishing those who are guilty. This will make it clear to the public that justice is being upheld," he added.
Hendardi, from the Setara Institute, said in Jakarta on Monday the current uproar over efforts to weaken the KPK should be used to improve the performances of law enforcement institutions, namely the National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the KPK.
"The individuals involved from the three institutions (in the graft scandal) have to be dismissed and investigated," Hendardi told Antara.
He said the officials from the three institutions that were not found guilty must be rehabilitated and reinstated to their earlier positions.
"Not all policemen and prosecutors are clean, but we have to be just, objective and critical. We can't just indiscriminately back the KPK as if all of their officials are clean," he said.
Meanwhile, Facebook support for the two suspended KPK deputies continued to increase on Monday or 11 days after the online group was formed. The number of Facebookers registering their support reached over 1,162,000 as of 6 p.m. on Monday.