As corruption continues to cloud the country, with convicted politicians shamelessly still running for public office, President Joko ‘‘Jokowi’’ Widodo said on Tuesday that an overhaul in the legal system should be carried out from top to bottom.

In a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace, President Jokowi called for immediate and substantial legal reform, saying it was key to improving public service.

Without extensive law reform, the President said, there would be distrust and disobedience.

“It [distrust and disobedience of the judiciary] should not be allowed and should not happen, especially in today’s era of competition and legal certainty. [A strong legal system] is crucial for a country to compete at the regional level. There are no more options, we must immediately carry out substantial legal reform from the highest to the lowest [levels],” he said.

Jokowi said based on a global corruption perception index in 2015, Indonesia ranked 88th among the countries surveyed, Denmark, Finland and Sweden were acknowledged as the three least corrupt countries. On the rule of law index, Indonesia ranked 52nd.

After the meeting, Jokowi, who has received complaints about rampant illegal levies, paid a visit to the Transportation Ministry, where ministry officials were allegedly caught red-handed in an operation led by the Jakarta Police on Tuesday. The arrests were made on allegations of ministry officials collecting illegal levies related to licensing services. The ministry is less than 1 kilometer from the palace.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said he had received reports about the alleged collection of illegal fees a month after he became minister. “I received reports indicating that illegal fee collection occurred in the ministry, especially in regard to licensing services,” he said.

Presidential spokesman Johan Budi said public service improvement was a goal of the legal reform.

“It is about improvement in public service; one of the main focuses in the legal reform is to root out illegal levies and bribery.”

Efforts to intensify the fight against illegal levies were on the table during the meeting at the palace on Tuesday and is among five areas the government is focusing on in the legal reform.

Jokowi also demanded breakthrough measures in the prevention and settlement of legal cases, such as corruption, human rights abuses, people smuggling, forest fires and drug crimes.

The meeting decided that Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto would coordinate and finalize the moves to root out illegal levies, for instance, and on how to reform the driver’s license issuance process, said Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung.

Pramono said the bureaucratic reform minister also had a role in legal reform, to ensure that any civil servants involved in illegal levy plots were immediately sacked from their posts.

Corruption cases have continued to trouble the country, with jail terms seemingly failing to provide a deterrent.

A number of politicians have run for office after serving time.

Among those who have returned to public office after serving time for corruption are Gerindra Party politician Muhammad Taufik, who secured a seat on the Jakarta City Council and was later appointed deputy speaker after serving a year for a corruption case related to election material procurement. He was convicted of the crime while serving as Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD Jakarta) chairman. (win)

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