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Commentary: Stop terror in Court or risk falling under rule of thugs
Unruly crowds intimidating judges in and outside our courts is becoming an appalling upward trend in the Indonesian judicial system, largely because there has been no clear legal basis to punish the perpetrators
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nruly crowds intimidating judges in and outside our courts is becoming an appalling upward trend in the Indonesian judicial system, largely because there has been no clear legal basis to punish the perpetrators.
In the latest well-documented incident, a group of fanatics unhappy with the five-year jail term given to a man accused of blasphemy hurled insults at the panel of judges at Temanggung District Court in
Central Java.
The anarchy did not stop there. After being unable to grab the tightly guarded convict, they vandalized the Court building and continued to vent their anger by attacking churches and raining stones on police officers.
An ongoing trial of men charged with attacking Ahmadis held at the Bogor District Court, West Java, has also been seriously disrupted by supporters of the accused, who flock to the Court by the hundreds. In one incident angry people chased a car they thought was carrying one of the prosecutors.
Groups of self-styled moralists also intimidated the sex tape trials of singer Ariel at the Bandung District Court. The crowds pressured judges to give a heavy sentence to Peter Pan’s front man.
In a more hair-raising incident, last year scores of thugs from rival groups cut each others’ throats outside the South Jakarta Court, which was holding a trial of two persons accused of murder committed during an argument at a night club. Three lives were lost in skirmishes outside the Court.
The list of such horrific cases of contempt of court can endlessly go on. Extremely worrying is that none of the perpetrators have been charged with contempt of court. What the authorities usually do to unruly court attendees is verbally reprimand or expel them at best.
In fact, a court in Jambi province set a good example last year when it charged a former school headmaster for calling judges “pigs” after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual assault.
But such action is never heard to have occurred when it comes to mob terror intended to intimidate court proceedings.
Perpetrators are unmistakably those who have a poor understanding of the legal system. In the Temanggung case, for example, the judge had handed down the maximum jail term of five years to the accused, as the law prescribes, but the mob demanded death.
Like any other law enforcement institution, the Indonesian court has been suffering miserably from public mistrust as a place ill-suited for seeking justice because of widespread judicial corruption. For the common people, the court is where the rich and the powerful can buy justice.
Mob intimidation will unquestionably influence the judges and prosecutors in making decisions.
The Temanggung riot was a case in point. The judge banged his gavel just shortly after the prosecutors stated their sentencing demand.
The Judicial Commission’s call deserves all-out support for the House of Representatives to include an article on contempt of court in the Criminal Code (KUHP), which is being revised. Stern punishment should also be meted out for judicial crimes.
Most important of all is rigorous law enforcement. Indonesia has often become the butt of jokes for boasting about excellent laws that are hardly enforced.
Good laws and good enforcement by dignified law enforcers will hopefully improve the image of the Indonesian judicial system and lift it to international standards.
The absence of legal action would only make people think it’s alright to insult judges and prosecutors and to set the court building on fire for fun.
Unless the authorities are equipped with adequate and enforced legal bases to deal with contempt of court, Indonesia will fall under the rule of thugs.
