The Jakarta Post, July 05, 2002
RI welcomes UN legal experts
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.
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