Archive for October, 2008
Outgoing Indonesian Top Judge Denies Graft
JAKARTA: The outgoing chief of Indonesia’s Supreme Court on Friday denied corruption was rife at the highest level of the country’s judicial system, despite a slew of disputed decisions and graft allegations.
Bagir Manan, 67, retired from the nation’s top judicial post after a seven-year stint amid two ongoing cases into bribes and embezzlement involving court officials.
The powerful Corruption Eradication Commission in June launched an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of court fees. The probe included the examination of a personal bank account belonging to Manan.
Manan has also reportedly been named in a court case as the intended recipient of bribes that were allegedly handed to court staff in 2005 by businessman Probosutedjo, a step-brother of former dictator Suharto.
“Those accusations that I have received bribes don’t make sense at all and no one has ever proven that I’ve taken a bribe,” Manan told foreign journalists at a meeting to mark his retirement.
“In the Supreme Court, up to this day not… a single one of my judges has been put on trial.”
Indonesia’s Supreme Court is widely seen as tangled up in the institutionalised corruption that is rife throughout country’s the court system. It has been criticised for a series of baffling decisions.
In 2007, the court awarded 100 million dollars in libel damages to former dictator Suharto over a Time magazine article alleging massive corruption. That decision is being appealed.
It also cut to 10 years an initial 15-year sentence handed in 2002 to Suharto’s playboy youngest son, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, for a range of crimes including the murder of a Supreme Court judge.
However, Manan said the Supreme Court had been leading the charge in reforming Indonesia’s judiciary and was cleaning up the murky practices of the lower courts.
Judges and court staff have been given extra training and increased salaries, while those found to have broken the law have been severely punished, he said.
“It’s hard for me to say it, but there are a lot of corrupt judges, that can be established. But we’re not closed to the possibility that bribery happens at the lower courts, bribery happens in the appeals courts,” Manan said.
Indonesia is ranked as the world’s 126th most corrupt country on Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, on a level pegging with countries including Uganda, Libya and Ethiopia.
The group’s local chapter ranks the judiciary as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country.
- AFP/so
Channel News Asia
Indonesia Passes Far-Reaching Anti-Porn Law
JAKARTA: Indonesian lawmakers rammed a far-reaching anti-pornography law through parliament on Thursday, despite howls of protest by artists and religious minorities who say it threatens national unity.
Lawmakers voted by an overwhelming majority to back a modified version of the law, which criminalises all works and “bodily movements” deemed obscene and capable of violating public morality.
The law has been championed by the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and other Islamic parties and is being backed by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
It has prompted protests across Indonesia, with critics saying it could threaten traditional cultures from temple statues on Hindu Bali Island to penis sheaths on tribesmen in Christian and animist Papua province.
Two of the parties opposing the bill walked out of parliament before the vote, saying its definition of pornography remained too broad, despite an exhaustive revision process.
“We feel this law is being passed by force without taking into consideration the feelings of the community such as artists and cultural workers,” said Tjajo Kumolo, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Struggle, which walked out.
But backers of the bill said the law left space for legitimate artistic expression and traditional cultures and would not see bikini-clad tourists driven off beaches in places such as Bali.
“This law will ensure that Islam is preserved and guaranteed. It is also not in the interest of any specific religion. The law is also meant to preserve arts and culture and not destroy them,” said Hakim Sori Muda Borhan, a lawmaker from Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party.
“This law isn’t discriminatory. It should be implemented on the ground so that pornography will be eradicated in time,” said parliamentary chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid, from the PKS.
Activists on Bali, where opposition to the law has ignited protests of thousands of people, said they would mount a legal challenge arguing the law violates freedom of expression.
“We’re going to encourage civil disobedience if our challenge to the porn law fails,” said Gusti Ngurah Harta, an activist from the Bali People’s Component, which represents artists.
Muslims make up roughly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 234 million population, which also contains sizeable Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian minorities.
- AFP/so
Channel News Asia
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