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Editorial: Legal (un)certainty
There is nothing more worrisome in a sovereign, rule-based state than the absence of legal certainty to ensure that laws and regulations are imposed and justice is upheld
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here is nothing more worrisome in a sovereign, rule-based state than the absence of legal certainty to ensure that laws and regulations are imposed and justice is upheld. Unfortunately that is what is currently happening in our beloved country.
Case in point is none other than the uncertainty that has emerged in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on a power abuse and blackmail case implicating two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO), which is responsible for taking further legal action after the Supreme Court rejected on Thursday its request for a review of Bibit and Chandra’s corruption trial, has decided not to make any decision on the matter until the President has appointed a new attorney general. Practically, the AGO has been left without guidance, as the office’s highest-ranking official, Darmono, has declined to make strategic decisions in his capacity as interim attorney general.
As a consequence of the Supreme Court’s verdict, the case against Bibit and Chandra should proceed and be tried in court. While it is unlikely that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will appoint a permanent attorney general soon, the trial against the two KPK deputies will continue unchallenged as the AGO will remain undecided on the matter.
The case against Bibit and Chandra has been controversial since its very beginning, when a pre-trial lawsuit was filed by bribery convict Anggodo Widjojo, who accused Bibit and Chandra of power abuse and blackmail in the investigation of his brother, fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo. Controversy grew unexpectedly when the President, via an eight-member team of advisers, issued in November a recommendation that the case against Bibit and Chandra be halted due to insufficient evidence.
In view of the presidential advisory team’s recommendation — and increasing public pressure to defend the embattled pair — the AGO issued a prosecution cessation letter to several courts to terminate the trial. The decision later proved to be a mistake after lower courts overturned the letter twice and the Supreme Court eventually upheld the lower courts’ rulings.
None of this “legal mess” would have happened if Yudhoyono had taken necessary measures to ensure the sustainability of the KPK immediately after its former chief, Antasari Azhar, was declared a suspect in (and later convicted of) the March 2009 murder of a businessman, and the “controversial investigation” of corruption allegations against Bibit and Chandra by the police. While the court found Antasari guilty, the police’s investigation of the KPK deputies — widely believed to be an effort to tame the anticorruption commission — later proved that the allegations were false and had even ruined the President’s image and his anticorruption commitment.
Now the case against Bibit and Chandra has become complicated. Whatever legal measures are taken in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling will have further legal consequences and the President will be under great pressure to take immediate and proper action to clean up the mess. He can start by immediately appointing a permanent attorney general and by accelerating the election of a candidate to fill the also vacant post of KPK chief.
