T

he Judicial Commission (KY), the external judicial supervisory body, has elected its commissioner Aidul Fitriciada Azhari as its new chairman and Sukma Violetta as deputy chairwoman for 2015 to 2020, a decision that many expect to help improve relations between the commission and the Supreme Court (MA).

Aidul has a background in academia and Sukma is a former public attorney and a former assistant to the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) reform team.

Relations between the KY and the Supreme Court deteriorated in recent years, amid ongoing internal reform at the MA, which started in the early the 2000s.

Critics said the country'€™s highest court'€™s resistance to external supervision, formally conducted by the Judicial Commission, was partly responsible for the failure of its reform, while the absence of clear guidelines and better indicators of the pros and cons of each internal reform measure was considered another factor.

KY spokesman Farid Wadji expressed optimism that with the new leadership, the commission could deliver a better performance in the future.

'€œThe election process reflected commissioners'€™ support for democracy. [I] hope it can bring a new positive energy to all elements of the KY,'€ Farid said on Friday.

In an apparent effort to weaken the KY'€™s authority, a number of Supreme Court justices, along with a court clerk, won a judicial review petition in October that scrapped the commission'€™s role in selecting judges for district courts, religious courts and state administrative courts.

The ruling allows the Supreme Court to select judges for those courts without being accountable to other state bodies and leaves the commission with only the authority to monitor judges and help maintain their credibility.

The recent arrest of a Supreme Court non-judge official for allegedly accepting bribes has not only exposed possible rampant corruption within the country'€™s highest judicial institution, but has sparked questions about its ongoing reform.

As part of its reform, the Supreme Court has issued a number of internal regulations on public information and one-day publishing of rulings.

A number of anticorruption and legal campaign groups, including the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR), expressed hopes that the new KY leaders would bring on board better ties with the MA and negotiate new terms for external supervision.

'€œWe do hope the new KY chairman is able to play a more active role in maintaining judicial independence and go to greater effort to stamp out judicial '€œmafia'€ practices at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court,'€ said activist Julius Ibrani on behalf of the three groups.

ICW identified an increasing number of acquittals of corruption defendants at various local corruption courts last year. According to ICW, 68 people out of 564 corruption defendants were cleared of charges in 2015, while only 28 corruption defendants were acquitted in 2014.

Other big challenges for the new KY chairman, Julius said, were broaden its monitoring role and building better relations with the MA.

The coalition, however, also criticized the KY chairman election mechanism, saying it failed to provide a big enough chance for public participation in scrutinizing the candidates'€™ agendas.

Voting started after an open session where all candidates, who are the six commissioners, presented their visions to the floor. Only commissioner Joko Sasmito, a former military judge, declined to have himself nominated.

Soon after his election, Aidul said his office would focus on empowering judges in terms of their capacity, integrity and welfare, as well as building better communications with the Supreme Court.