Nivell Rayda – A task force assigned to crack down on corrupt middlemen in the Indonesia's legal system vowed this week to conduct more surprise inspections and take legal action against rogue officials.
The presidentially appointed Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force outlined eight strategies to combat so-called case brokering on Thursday.
Mas Achmad Santosa, a member of the task force, said the group would increase its monitoring of the country's law enforcement agencies, courts and high-profile cases for indications of bribes and graft.
"A system needs to be put in place where the public is able to monitor the progress of a case in court, for instance, and all law enforcers must be held accountable for measures and actions taken in the case," Santosa said.
"We have the Judicial Commission, the Prosecution Commission and the National Police Commission but all are toothless because they don't have the necessary legal basis," he said.
Santosa added that the task force hoped to give more power to existing independent state agencies designed to counterbalance law enforcement agencies. The independent agencies "should be allowed to sanction rogue law enforcers and conduct their own investigations instead of making recommendations that only end up in trash can."
The Judicial Commission receives an average of 200 public complaints annually, including allegations of judges manipulating their decisions or acting unprofessionally. The commission only has the power to recommend that the Supreme Court, which oversees the court system, form an ethics committee to sanction the offending judges.
The Supreme Court has only handled 11 such cases so far and only two judges have been sanctioned since the Judicial Commission was established in 2004.
Santosa said the task force was closely watching high-profile cases and conducting frequent surprise inspections to ensure that reforms to combat agents of the so-called judicial mafia would stick.
"Our aim is to conduct 'shock therapy' sessions on law enforcers so that they have the desire to change their corrupt system," he said.
In January, the task force conducted a surprise inspection at the Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary in East Jakarta, revealing that particular high-profile inmates had been receiving special facilities and privileges, including air-conditioners, wall-to-wall carpeting and flat-screen televisions.
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, which oversees the country's penal system, demoted six prison officials, including the chief of the Pondok Bambu penitentiary.
Emerson Yuntho, deputy chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said the inspection failed to generate significant reforms within the ministry.
"Sure, the special privileges were eliminated, but for how long?" Emerson told the Jakarta Globe.
"Reforms will not be effective unless sanctions are also imposed on high-ranking officials that allow the practices to occur. The officials should not only receive administrative sanctions but also criminal prosecution. Then the 'shock therapy' would work and deter other officials from doing the same thing."
Teten Masduki, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia, criticized a task-force plan that would allow law enforcement agencies to conduct their own reforms against case brokering.
"Law enforcers have been talking about reforming themselves for more than 10 years and yet case brokering occurs time and time again," he said. "It's about commitment. They can formulate the best system in the world, but if the system is run by corrupt people then the reforms can easily be hijacked or undermined by officials benefiting from case brokering."
Teten added that the task force should establish key performance indicators to measure the success of its efforts.
Santosa said getting law enforcement agencies to implement their own reforms was a necessary step to engender a sense of ownership in the improvements among the agencies. "Who better to identify the problems within law enforcement agencies than the law enforcers themselves?" he said.
"We are optimistic that the law enforcers are committed to bettering themselves, but we will closely monitor their progress and conduct quarterly evaluations to measure their success."