AGO's performance

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 09/25/2006 9:22 AM  |  Opinion

A standoff between Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh and former Jakarta chief prosecutor Rusdi Taher took center stage a few weeks ago, when the Attorney General refused a request from members of the House of Representatives for Rusdi to attend their hearing.

The House members wanted him to clarify, together with Abdul Rahman, his dismissal in connection with sentencing irregularities in the case of Hariono Agus Tjahjono, who was caught with 20 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.

This political hullabaloo would not have happened if the basis for the punishment was the government regulation on civil servants discipline, meaning the conflict could have been settled internally.

However, it's worth questioning whether Rusdi was punished after undergoing a thorough and closed investigation, and whether he was given three warnings. In fact, Rusdi said he did not know what he had done wrong (Elshinta radio interview, Sept. 14).

If Rusdi was really punished according to the aforementioned regulation, this means the Attorney General implemented it half-heartedly, as it was also applied to Rusdi's subordinates who were punished under different articles of the regulation.

Publicly announcing the disciplinary action was also against the regulation, which states that civil servants are to be punished directly and not publicly.

Such an incident, which is apparently unprecedented, has shown us how ""chaotic"" the AGO's performance is. The case, as part of Indonesia's judicial system -- which, as former president Megawati Soekarnoputri said, has been marred by ""case trading"" -- is the latest that must be rectified.

One should also be aware that there's a ""rights for cash"" acronym in the system, meaning that the reduction of a sentence is equal to a certain amount of rupiah (Kompas, Sept. 15).

Therefore, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has a long way to go in his task of reforming the country's judicial system as it has gotten tangled up with the other acute problems of law enforcement agencies like the police and the Supreme Court.

M. RUSDI
Jakarta

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