New Judicial Commission chairman Suparman Marzuki on Tuesday pledged that he would crack down on rogue judges and justices in spite of the weak authority that the commission currently has
ew Judicial Commission chairman Suparman Marzuki on Tuesday pledged that he would crack down on rogue judges and justices in spite of the weak authority that the commission currently has.
Suparman, the Judicial Commission's monitoring division head and a former rights activist, was elected chairman after he won four of the seven votes cast by fellow commissioners on Tuesday.
Suparman, who is also a lecturer at the Indonesia Islamic University in Yogyakarta, will be inaugurated on July 1, replacing Eman Suparman, whose tenure will end on June 30. Eman will serve as one of commissioners.
'We are determined to reform the judiciary. We will create a clean judiciary,' Suparman said, soon after being elected.
The commission has been criticized for being too lenient on the Supreme Court despite the fact that the amended Judicial Commission Law, enacted in late 2011, gives them more authority in monitoring judges.
A case involving judge Muhammad Daming Sunusi, who caused uproar over remarks he made about rape victims, remains unresolved in spite of a recommendation given to the Supreme Court to establish a judicial ethics committee.
Although the commission announced in January that it found Daming had breached the judicial code of ethics and should be dismissed from his current position, the Supreme Court insisted that an ethics hearing for Daming was unnecessary.
The Supreme Court sent a letter regarding the matter to the commission on Feb. 1, saying that Daming should be given an 'appropriate punishment'.
The commission insisted for the Supreme Court to implement the recommendation.
To rectify this, Suparman said that he would build a better relationship with the Supreme Court.
'I admit that we lack communication with the Supreme Court,' he said.
During the second round of voting on Tuesday, former Supreme Court justice Abbas Said was elected deputy chairman.
Abbas, along with 30 other Supreme Court justices, had previously filed a judicial review on the commission's authority to monitor justices at the Constitutional Court in 2006.
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