I

t seems that during this recent Ramadhan, the spirit of berbagi (sharing) '€” a religious obligation during the fasting month '€” was given a new interpretation by Otto Cornelius Kaligis, one of Indonesia'€™s top celebrity lawyers.

Unfortunately, when you '€œberbagi'€ with judges to get a favorable trial outcome, it'€™s called bribery.

Kaligis was arrested on July 14, smack bang in the middle of the fasting month, as a suspect for allegedly bribing three Medan State Administrative Court (PTUN) judges (see '€œKPK names top lawyer Kaligis bribery suspect'€, The Jakarta Post, 15 July).

It began when the KPK caught Kaligis'€™ assistant Yagari Bhastara Guntur (aka Gerry) in flagrante delicto, bribing some judges in Medan. The aim was purportedly to persuade them to go easy on North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho, who was himself under indictment for corruption. Under interrogation, the assistant implicated the boss. And voilà!

Bribing judges? Don'€™t most Indonesians consider that a part of practicing law? So what'€™s new?

Well, this is the first time that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has charged a lawyer, and a really high profile one at that, sometimes referred to in the media as a legal mafioso.

And it'€™s high time too, because it'€™s a well-known, long standing fact that lawyers mastermind bribery cases. Prominent human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis says that many of his colleagues rely on bribes rather than solid legal arguments to win a case, which he says is a sad reflection on the Indonesian bar.

Sad? It'€™s outrageous! A total travesty of what the legal profession stands for. No wonder a very senior, well-respected lawyer I know laments the fact that the manner in which some lawyers operate now essentially make them no different from extortionists. Far from trying to bribe discreetly, some of them do so in blatantly brazen ways, which shows how cocksure they are of themselves.

There are a number of reasons for their arrogance. One is a culture of impunity that developed and thrived during Soeharto'€™s New Order, and which to a certain, or perhaps even large, extent, is still in place for today'€™s power elite.

But even more than that is the culture of bagi-bagi (roughly, sharing the spoils) which has existed in Indonesia since the birth of the Republic (and even before). It starts with Indonesia'€™s natural and national wealth and has long centered on resource extraction. Everyone wants to get a piece of the action and a slice of the pie. Even a small slice can mean potential enrichment. Some players in the bureaucracy get a piece by withholding signatures on permits until paid. Some in law enforcement assist by smuggling or looking-the-other-way when laws are broken, for payment.

Inevitably, some monied actors will find themselves in legal trouble. Maybe they did something wrong (recently or long ago is not relevant). Or maybe they just didn'€™t bagi-bagi enough to the people who are supposed to be upholding the law. Whatever the path, now this person is in trouble and facing trial. At this stage, the legal leeches (or vultures?), namely high-powered and connected lawyers, swoop in. They get a slice of the riches not by practicing law in the professional sense, but by assisting clients through a legal system that is also filled with people eager to get in on the bagi-bagi action.

For a very high fee, these lawyers will try at various stages to get the case to go away or get a favorable verdict if it goes to trial. They do this not via sophisticated legal skills but rather by being good at feeding the bagi-bagi machine.

Funnel the right amount of money to the judges and everything will work out fine. If you are a lawyer who is really good at this, you will attract many rich clients who happen to be in big trouble. All of this amounts to a massive and entrenched structure for distributing and sharing the country'€™s wealth.

The bagi-bagi process not only gets problems solved, but it also generally lubricates the system so that things get done. It does so through rampant illegality, without which the system actually has trouble functioning. A number of observers such as Gerindra member and Deputy House Speaker, Fadli Zon have basically stated this openly.

In detik.com, Fadli is actually quoted as saying that corruption is the '€œoil'€ that keeps the country running, and that in many developing countries, graft and economic growth go hand in hand. Right folks, rub your eyes hard and read that sentence again!

'€œWhat do you choose? No corruption and no development, or a little corruption and development?'€ he argues. The problem is, in the New Order, the corruption committed by the officials of strongman Soeharto was massive, which apparently Fadli forgets or condones.

The growing number of corruption cases investigated by the KPK is seen by Fadli as being a sign of failure or poor performance on the part of the antigraft body. Go figure. I mean, this guy was born in 1971, and so he is a member of the younger generation, but nonetheless he totally embodies the bagi-bagi mentality of the New Order.

But wait! Even Megawati Soekarnoputri, head of PDI-P, the ruling party, recently spoke out and attacked the KPK, saying that it was clogging up the bureaucracy and slowing development spending because everyone is afraid of KPK prosecutions.

So do we just throw our hands up and say, what the heck, this is simply the Indonesian way? Do we simply accept that corruption is woven deeply into the fabric of Indonesian society (it is) and that it will always be like this?

Obviously the KPK doesn'€™t think so. Despite the fact that it is embattled and beleaguered, it still shows its gumption by indicting a senior and influential (and notorious) lawyer like Kaligis.

Will the Kaligis case be the KPK'€™s swan song, or a way to gain renewed public support and confidence for its revival?

I'€™m holding my breath.
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The writer is the author of Julia'€™s Jihad.