President Sets out Master Plan for Indonesian Legal Reform

Indonesian Version

 
Ricky Pratomo, Muhammad Agus Yozami
 

 

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as quoted on the cabinet secretariat’s website (setkab.go.id) last Tuesday, has emphasized that Indonesia should immediately implement sweeping and comprehensive measures aimed at legal reform in a bid to restore public trust in the country’s justice system. The President stated his belief that three areas need to be specifically addressed.
 
Firstly, the country’s many regulations should be restructured so that they are of a higher quality. President Jokowi believes that Indonesia should be a country which is based on the fundamental rule of law, instead of being buried under a confusing mountain of laws and regulations. Therefore, ministries and government institutions should no longer focus their energies on issuing endless regulations.
 
“[Ministries and government institutions] should only issue high-quality regulations which protect the public, instead of undermining their interests. Such regulations should facilitate and provide justice for the public, and ultimately should not overlap with one another,” the President explained.
 
Secondly, President Jokowi argued that any comprehensive attempt at legal reform should also encompass reformation within legal institutions, including the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the National Police Force and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. According to President Jokowi, the objective here should be to offer professional legal enforcement and services.
 
“I am asking that massive improvements be made at public-service centers, such as those dealing with immigration and correctional facilities, as well as centers issuing driver’s licenses and vehicle-registration and vehicle-ownership certificates, including traffic tickets,” the President stated, while also demanding that officials ensure that illegal retribution (pungutan liar) is eradicated.
 
President Jokowi further pledged that he would continue to monitor any improvements which are made by undertaking field-supervision visits to such public-service centers. In addition, the President is also encouraging the establishment of innovative measures aimed at the prevention and settlement of various legal issues, including corruption, past human-rights violations, smuggling, forest and plantation conflagration, as well as narcotics trafficking.
 
President Jokowi’s third area of focus addresses his hope that a culture of law can ultimately be strengthened within Indonesian society. The President believes that the reinforcement of a culture of law should be prioritized, against the current background of emerging intolerance, gangsterism, violence and vigilantism.
 
The President also lamented the fact that Indonesian society, from the level of state governance all the way down to the general public’s daily life, rarely reflected any absolute rule of law.
 
“The law is still indeed sharp for the poor and blunt for the rich,” the President claimed.
 
President Jokowi also bemoaned the fact that Indonesia only ranked 88^th on Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. Similarly, Indonesia only ranked 52^nd on the World Justice Project’s 2015 Rule of Law Index. The President believes that Indonesia should learn from these rankings and that any repetition of such poor achievements would ultimately result in general distrust and disobedience being aimed towards the law and at law enforcers by the general public.
 
“This poor situation should not be allowed to continue and should not even be happening. In this era of fierce global competition, legal certainty should be prioritized, so that the country will be able to compete at a regional level,” President Jokowi concluded.
 
(cd/sp)