Govt. Set to Release Second Legal-Reform Package

Indonesian Version

 
Aditiya Putra, Zaimulhaq Elfan Habib

 

During his first two years in office, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is widely perceived to have placed a greater emphasis upon economic issues than it has upon the justice system. This view is supported by the fact that Indonesia’s ranking on the corruption-eradication index still lags behind those of Malaysia and Singapore. In a bid to offer a response to this poor performance, President Jokowi is currently planning to issue another legal-reform package.
 
Asep Rahmat Fajar, an expert member of the presidential staff stated recently that the government had already introduced a series of policies and measures through its first legal-reform package, and went on to reveal that the government was now preparing a second legal-reform package for imminent release.
 
“President Jokowi is intending to introduce these legal-reform measures in order to improve Indonesia’s ranking [on the corruption-eradication index],” Mr. Fajar asserted in Jakarta last Wednesday.
 
Mr. Fajar went on to explain that the government was currently aiming to harmonize Indonesia’s many laws and regulations. With this ultimate goal in mind, Mr. Fajar asserted that the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) would be releasing this second legal-reform package in order to harmonize Indonesia’s legal-reform policies with its policy ofNawacita.
 
First Legal-Reform Package: Eight Programs Already Implemented
 
Mr. Fajar also affirmed in his statement that the government’s first legal-reform package had already been implemented and that this package involved a total of eight programs which were currently being rolled out across the country.
 
The first program relates to the issue of illegal levies (pungutan liar-pungli) and a “Saber Pungli” team has now been established in a bid to eradicate this pernicious practice. The second program relates to the issue of smuggling, specifically the sale of illegal goods along local trade routes.
 
“This program is being supervised by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti,” Mr. Fajar explained.
 
The third program which is currently in the process of being implemented is aimed squarely at reforming the country’s prison system (lembaga pemasyarakatan), specifically the mechanisms which relate to remissions and conditional releases. The fourth program deals with the issue of intellectual property, which nowadays encompasses online and real-time processing.
 
The fifth legal-reform program which is currently being rolled out relates to the new electronic service for citizenship documents, which has been introduced at the Directorate General of General Legal Administration (Ditjen AHU). A sixth program is aiming to expedite the process whereby drivers obtain driving licenses (SIM), vehicle registration certificates (STNK) and motor-vehicle ownership books (BPKB). A seventh program is aiming to allow people to attend court anywhere, while the government’s eighth legal-reform program simplifies the procedure which is to be followed when traffic tickets are issued.
 
(cd/sp)