The fresh arrests of judges in alleged corruption cases is an important signal to immediately conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the judiciary in the country. The arrests of judges and court officials within the last three years should be considered a serious problem.
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Kompas
Officials are pictured during the inauguration of the head of the appellate court at the Supreme Court in Jakarta on Thursday, March 24, 2016.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The fresh arrests of judges in alleged corruption cases is an important signal to immediately conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the judiciary in the country. The arrests of judges and court officials within the last three years should be considered a serious problem.
Since 2015, up to 14 judges under the Supreme Court have been implicated in corruption cases handled by the KPK.
The most recent arrests occurred on Tuesday evening, with the KPK detaining two judges from the South Jakarta District Court, Iswahyudi Widodo and Irwan, and an acting clerk of the East Jakarta District Court, Muhammad Ramadhan, who was believed to be a bribery middleman. Besides the three, the KPK also arrested advocate Arif Fitrawan. The four were named suspects in bribery cases.
"The KPK continues to remind all parties, especially law enforcement officials, to continue to maintain integrity and not be involved in criminal acts of corruption by trading verdicts," said KPK deputy chairman Alexander Marwata, on Wednesday in Jakarta.
Iswahyudi and Irwan were believed to have received Rp 150 million and S$47,000 in stages from the advocate. The alleged bribery was believed to have influenced the civil court\'s decision in relation to the cancellation of the acquisition agreement of PT Citra Lampia Mandiri (CLM) by PT Asia Pacific Mining Resources (APMR).
With regard to the arrests of the two judges, Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi said that strict action would be taken against the two officials who have been named suspects.
According to Suhadi, many methods had been carried out to prevent judicial officials from accepting bribes, including by prohibiting meetings between judicial officials and plaintiffs, and requiring supervisors to closely watch their subordinates. However, all Supreme Court provisions and prohibitions have not been able to overcome the risk of corruption in the judicial body.
“Yes, apparently it is like that [not effective],” Suhadi said.
Resistance
The fresh arrests of judges in bribery cases show the powerlessness of the Supreme Court to supervise judges. The Supreme Court should, therefore, allow the Judicial Commission to act as an external supervisory body of judges.
“Thus far we see the Supreme Court strongly oppose supervision from other institutions, especially the Judicial Commission. However, if judges are arrested on suspicions of bribery, it shows that the Supreme Court is powerless to supervise its judges,” said Teuku Taufiqulhadi, a member of House of Representatives Commission III and a NasDem Party politician.
Therefore, he asked the Supreme Court to no longer resist supervision from the Judicial Commission for the sake of justice. Justice cannot be done as long as there is still corruption.
Commission III, Taufiqulhadi added, had also considered strengthening the Judicial Commission’s supervision of judges. This is being worked out through the legislative process.
“We will try to present stronger norms in a bill, which, in essence, will aim to strengthen the Judicial Commission’s supervision role. If not, it will be dangerous as such happenings will continue to occur,” he said.
Separately, Judicial Commission chairman Jaja Ahmad Jayus expressed concern over the fresh arrests of judges. “There must be a correction to the supervision of judges because within a short period of time such incidents can happen again. The Judicial Commission will cooperate with the Supreme Court in search of a solution,” he said.
Full evaluation
Former chief justice Topane Gayus Lumbuun said the arrests would continue to occur if a full evaluation was not carried out. This evaluation would involve no less than replacing court leaders, starting from the lowest level to the appeals level, to the Supreme Court. Court leaders, who are classified as demonstrating good performance, will be kept on, while those who have performed badly must be replaced immediately.
With a full evaluation, the judiciary of the country will have a new face. It will no longer be chaired by those with questionable integrity, but by clean judges.
Such a full evaluation will require significant energy, as there are 600 district court leaders throughout Indonesia. If combined with their deputy leaders, there are 1,200 district court leaders. With regard to the chairmen and deputy chairmen of the high courts, there are 60. Moreover, there are 10 other elements of the Supreme Court leadership.
Besides evaluating the leadership of the judiciary, a full evaluation also needs to be carried out to determine how to ensure the effectiveness of the court agencies’ guidance and supervision.
“The present guidance and supervision is no longer effective. Older people have become accustomed to the guidance, and do not want to know and do not care about guidance and supervision. Therefore, if they are arrested, it is simply bad luck,” Gayus said.
Executive director of the Constitution Study Center of the Andalas University law school Feri Amsari said the arrests continued because efforts to eradicate corruption had been half-hearted.
"The arrest of corruption suspects by the KPK in the South Jakarta District Court is something that has happened repeatedly and is easy to predict. It means the Supreme Court fails to understand where the centers of corruption are in the court, and fails to anticipate it so as to free the judiciary from cases that tarnish the dignity of justice," he said.
