Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The
Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government said on Thursday that doors were open for a
United Nations legal expert who has been assigned to assess
Indonesia's legal system later this month.
State officials believe the fact-finding mission, due to
commence on July 15 and end on July 25, will provide useful
recommendations on how to improve the country's judicial system.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said
the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and
lawyers, Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, would hold interviews during his
visit.
"The government will not intervene ... If the mission
intends to see the prosecution and the court system, then he is
welcome," Yusril told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
Cumaraswamy, a Malaysian lawyer who has been a UN rapporteur
since 1994, will also investigate judicial corruption, impunity,
the country's bar associations, and the implementation of the rule
of law in Indonesia.
He will meet, among others, Yusril, Chief Justice Bagir Manan,
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, and Attorney General
M.A. Rachman.
The report is expected to be released at the next annual
session of the UN Human Rights Commission in April 2003.
The Indonesian judiciary has been watched closely by the
international community, following a spate of dissatisfactory
rulings on corruption cases, including the recent case involving
judges accused of being bribed in the court's decision to declare
PT Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia bankrupt, and also the poor
performance of prosecutors and judges of the human rights ad hoc
court in the trials of human rights abuses committed in East Timor
in 1999.
Bagir Manan admitted the main problem lay in the poor
implementation of the law by law enforcers.
"The rapporteur should see the problems in a comprehensive
way, where even bureaucrats violate the law in issuing approval or
investment contracts," he told The Jakarta Post.
He underlined that the assessment should be based on an
appropriate benchmark, the current judicial system should be
compared with the country's condition a few years back rather than
with the legal system of a developed country.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, however, said
access given to the rapporteur would depend on the mission, adding
that it would be unnecessary for the UN envoy to visit troubled
Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province.