O

ur hearts mourned with deep anguish to see the 63-year-old Asyani, an elderly woman from Situbondo, East Java, wailing in the courtroom, begging for mercy not to be put in jail. The idea that the fragile, hunched, elderly woman could even lift the teak wood she was accused of stealing from state forestry company PT Perhutani seemed ludicrous.

Even walking straight seemed a struggle for her, let alone carrying logs on her arched back. Yet, even if the allegations are proven to be true, we will still find the vulgar spectacle irksome to our sense of justice.

In other public spectacles, law enforcers and politicians suspected of graft escape trial. They can easily bend the rules. Smiling venomously, they defy the court order and make justice a game of power. They manipulate the system and use any loopholes in the judicial system to their advantage. They walk free with their privileges intact.

This two contrasting dramas have our hearts boiling with rage. There'€™s no such thing as equality before the law. We have bitterly come to realize that the basic principle that no man is above the law and no man is below it is nothing but eloquent words nailed upon the wall. This rule of law does not apply to the poor and powerless. They screamed at the top of their lungs demand justice only to come on deaf ears. Our legal system is impotent in the face of grave injustice, leading to an unacceptable erosion of people'€™s faith in the justice delivery system and the rule of law itself.

Too often we hear cases of how the court and law enforcers treat the poor differently from the rich and powerful. The court, with its profoundly discriminative system, goes after the weak harder than they do the powerful, metes out harsher punishment to weak defendants and never, ever brings the same measure of mercy as they do the strong and powerful. They pursue minor criminal charges committed by the elderly all-out and indiscriminately and force them to stand on trial despite their failing health.

Yet, the same law is impotent in its ability to bring criminal charges to bear upon high-ranking figures. Graft suspects with immense power walk free and with a big smile.

Yuni Herlina
Depok, West Java